"White knuckle reading...with generous portions of adventure, intrigue, heroism, and high technology interwoven." --Los Angeles Times Book Review This enthralling true story of maritime tragedy and visionary science begins with a disaster to rival the sinking of the Titanic. In September 1857, the S.S.Central America,a side-wheel steamer carrying passengers returning from the gold fields of California, went down during a hurricane off the Carolina coast. More than 400 men--and 21 tons of gold--were lost. In the 1980s, a maverick engineer named Tommy Thompson set out to find the wreck and salvage its treasure from the ocean floor. With knuckle-biting suspense, Gary Kinder reconstructs the terror of theCentral America`s last days, when passengers bailed freezing water from the hold, then chopped the ship`s timbers to use as impromptu liferafts. He goes on to chronicle Thompson`s epic quest for the lost vessel, an endeavor that drew on the latest strides in oceanography, information theory, and underwater robotics, and that pitted Thompson against hair-raising weather, bloodthirsty sharks, and unscrupulous rivals. Ship of Goldis a magnificent adventure, filled with heroism, ingenuity, and perseverance.
