The SS Central America boasts one of the most remarkable shipwreck stories and subsequent artifact recoveries. Its passengers set sail on September 3, 1857, from San Francisco on the Pacific Mail Steamship Line SS Sonora and journeyed south to Panama City.

1. THE SHIPWRECK
OF THE SS
CENTRAL AMERICA

2. The SS Central America boasts one of the most remarkable shipwreck stories
and subsequent artifact recoveries. Its passengers set sail on September 3,
1857, from San Francisco on the Pacific Mail Steamship Line SS Sonora and
journeyed south to Panama City. They then disembarked and took the 48-
mile Panama railroad across the isthmus, a four-hour journey. A special
baggage car contained gold bars, coins, and ingots from the California Gold
Rush.

3. The SS Central America, or “Ship of Gold,” was docked in Colon (then known as
Aspinwall) on the Atlantic Ocean. The 477 passengers and 101 crew members
boarded the vessel captained by former naval captain William Herndon, known for
exploring the Amazon River.
Leaving Colon on September 3, 1857, the ship stopped in Havana and then sailed
along the United States coast, faring well until it encountered a violent storm off of
South Carolina on September 11. The ship rapidly took on water, and the coal-
powered boiler ceased operation. Captain Herndon flew the American flag upside
down as a distress signal.

4. Unfortunately, the weather was still stormy the next
day when rescuers attempted to reach the ship, and
they had to turn back. The crew of the SS Central
America dropped lifeboats into the water, and 153
passengers safely disembarked. While the women
were preparing to board the lifeboats, crew members
brought out bags of gold, scattered coins onto the
deck, and invited the women to help themselves. A
few took one or two of the $20 gold coins but had
to leave their baggage behind.
At 8 p.m. on September 12, a large wave hit the
ship, and it went under, with the remaining 425
people on board drowning and the substantial gold
in the hull descending to the bottomof the ocean.
The gold was valued at $2 million then, equivalent
to $300 million in today's currency.

5. Over the next 130 years, the US Navy, private explorers, and local fishermen
mounted expeditions to source the gold from the shipwreck. All efforts were
fruitless, with some ending in tragedy. Finally, marine engineer and treasure hunter
Tommy Thompson, after studying maritime documents and applying scientific
calculations for years, found what he believed was the exact spot on the ship’s route
when it sank. After raising $12.5 million from 161 investors, he launched a company
that built Nemo3, a claw-equipped underwater robot. On September 11, 1988, the
mission successfully pinpointed the wreck, and during the subsequent three years,
they retrieved thousands of artifacts, including gold bars and coins, which
constituted just 5 percent of the total treasure.

6. This led to the launch of Odyssey Marine Exploration in 2014. Led by Craig
Mullen and Bob Evans, the effort recovered 16,000 precious items, including
45 gold bars and 3,100 gold coins.
Artifacts from the SS Central America brought in $1.1 million at a Holabird
Western Americana Collections auction in March 2023. The item that
fetched the highest price was a 32.15-ounce gold ingot that John Glover
Kellogg and Augustus Humbert, Gold Rush assayers, forged in San
Francisco. The ingot sold for $138,000, well over the $60,000 valuation of
the gold alone.