Ship of Gold Review

[marshallkarp]

I started reading Ship of Gold by Gary Kinder on my way to Grand Cayman, hated to put it down, and finished it late last night. Very interesting read. This is the true story of Tommy Thompson, engineer, who led the charge to discover and recover the vast gold treasure from the USS Central America wreck off the east coast. Mr. Thompson used technology and science to locate and recover the gold, rather than intuition and random chance. Ohio State University, the Battelle Institutute, and other science minds and organizations had to develop new ways of search and recovery for thousand foot ocean recovery efforts.

There are a frightening and heroic account of the sinking, interesting account of the legal posturing, and realistic accounts of the financing. Even though this is not a book about diving, it is only a shade off from my enjoyment of Shadow Divers.

If you are looking for a good book to read on a long vacation plane ride, or any time, I highly recommend this one.

 

[fisheater]

Agreed.

I LOVED that book. It was very well written and extremely interesting and entertaining.

Last year, I was half way through a seminar on legal writing when it suddenly dawned on me that the instructor was none other that Gary Kinder! He's a really nice guy in person.

 

[DeepSeaDan]

I started reading Ship of Gold by Gary Kinder on my way to Grand Cayman, hated to put it down, and finished it late last night. Very interesting read. This is the true story of Tommy Thompson, engineer, who led the charge to discover and recover the vast gold treasure from the USS Central America wreck off the east coast. Mr. Thompson used technology and science to locate and recover the gold, rather than intuition and random chance. Ohio State University, the Battelle Institutute, and other science minds and organizations had to develop new ways of search and recovery for thousand foot ocean recovery efforts.

There are a frightening and heroic account of the sinking, interesting account of the legal posturing, and realistic accounts of the financing. Even though this is not a book about diving, it is only a shade off from my enjoyment of Shadow Divers.

If you are looking for a good book to read on a long vacation plane ride, or any time, I highly recommend this one.

...that was an interesting account. I loved the visual of the bottom being "carpeted with gold" when they turned on the submersible's lights.

Seeing that you're into this kinda read, try "The Salvage of the Century" - the true story of the discovery / recovery of 5 tons of gold from the H.M.S. Endinburgh, in 800' of the icy Bering Sea. I have a film of the story as well.

There have been several threads on this board dealing with "favourite diving books" - do a search & get yourself some more good reads...

Best Fishes,
DSD

 

[Barracuda2]

I hope you don't mind that I'm going to be a name dropper here. Tommy and Barry (Tommy's partner) were both ex-students of mine from their high school days here in Ohio. Tommy was the mechanical minded one, and Barry was more academia. In fact, Barry went to Scotland, England, and France with me and 15 other of my English students. We spent 6 weeks over there studying and soaking up the culture and scenery. I haven't seen or talked to either since they graduated, but I followed their story pretty close. It didn't surprise me that the rov and silicon used to pick up the coins were Tommy's invention. I hope to see them at a class reunion some day. Maybe they'll give their old English teacher a souvenir coin or something. Right.

 

[Noboundaries]

Thanks for starting the thread. I'm going to have quite a bit of recuperation time on my hands in a couple weeks and this will be a good way to pass the time. Just ordered it and a couple others to keep my mind occupied.

 

[marshallkarp]

Thanks for starting the thread. I'm going to have quite a bit of recuperation time on my hands in a couple weeks and this will be a good way to pass the time. Just ordered it and a couple others to keep my mind occupied.

Nothing serious, I hope?

 

[Noboundaries]

Nah. Hip replacement. It's only a two hour operation and the recoup is actually pretty quick. Other than the physical therapy and a few limitations, piece of cake. I'll be home from work for six weeks (thus the books), golfing in eight, back in the water in twelve.

Besides Ship of Gold, I ordered Fatal Treasure: Greed and Death, Emeralds and Gold, and the Obsessive Search for the Legendary Ghost Galleon Atocha by
Jedwin Smith; and Complete Wreck Diving: A Guide to Diving Wrecks.

Those three book should keep me from getting hooked on the soaps.

 

[ohmdiver]

For what it is worth, I woulod suggest doing a little research of your own, While I admire the hard work and determination Tommy Thompson and his crew did , I am equally dismayed by the out come of the "rest of the story". Granted greedy insurance companies and other unsavoray characters seem to be ready to spoil someone else's hard work.

see...
WHERE ARE YOU, TOMMY THOMPSON?

Again, I think it sad that greed is keeping a great story from being completely told...

 

[marshallkarp]

Ship Of Fools - Forbes.com

 

[Noboundaries]

It always amazes me that governments and insurance companies are quite satisfied to let treasure-laden shipwrecks lie undisturbed for centuries, then when found lay claim in court to the booty with no recompense to the discoverers. Ya gotta admit it makes for great drama though!