The 20th-anniversary edition of Gary Kinder's bestselling dramatic
story of shipwreck, treasure lost and found, and a new chapter in
deep-sea technology
From bestselling author Gary Kinder, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea
is a "ripping true tale of danger and discovery at sea" (Washington
Post), newly updated for this special 20th-anniversary edition.
In September 1857, the SS Central America, a steamer carrying nearly
six hundred passengers returning from the California Gold Rush, was
caught in a hurricane two hundred miles off the Carolina coast. Despite
the heroic efforts of the captain and his crew, the ship, over four
hundred lives, and twenty-one tons of California gold were lost. It
remains the worst peacetime disaster at sea in American history.
Combining historical adventure and scientific discovery, Gary Kinder
re-creates the ill-fated voyage, and then tells the story of Tommy
Thompson, a young engineer from Ohio who, in the 1980s, set out to be
the first ever to work on the bottom of the deep ocean. As the target
for his impossible quest, Thompson chose the wrecksite and fabled
treasure of the Central America. Kinder chronicles Thompson's epic
battles with naysayers, violent weather, experimental technology, the
harsh environment of the deep ocean, and unscrupulous rival treasure
hunters. The result is an extraordinary narrative of human drama, heroic
rescue, scientific ingenuity, and individual courage.
