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Information about Ss Central America

This article is about the ship. For related uses, see Central America (disambiguation).


Career
Name: SS Central America
Operator: United States Mail Steamship Company
General characteristics
Tonnage:2,141 tons
Length:278 ft
Beam:40 ft


SS Central America, sometimes called the Ship of Gold, was a 280-foot (85 m) sidewheel steamer that steamed between Central America and the eastern coast of the United States during the 1850s. Originally named the SS George Law, the ship sank in a hurricane in September 1857, along with 400 passengers and crew and 30,000 pounds of gold, contributing to the Panic of 1857.

Sinking

On September 3, 1857, 477 passengers and 101 crew left the Panamanian port of Colón, sailing for New York City under the command of William Lewis Herndon. The ship was heavily laden with between 13 and 15 tons of gold prospected during the California Gold Rush. After a stop in Havana, the ship continued north.

On September 9, the ship was caught up in a Category 2 hurricane while off the coast of the Carolinas. By September 11, the 105 mph (165 km/h) winds and heavy surf had shredded her sails, she was taking on water, and her boiler was threatening to go out. A leak in one of the seals to the paddle wheels sealed her fate, and, at noon that day, her boiler could no longer maintain fire. Steam pressure dropped, shutting down both the pumps keeping the water at bay and the paddle wheels that kept her pointed into the wind. The passengers and crew flew the ship's flag upside down (a universal sign of distress) to try to signal a passing ship. No one came.

A bucket brigade was formed and her passengers and crew spent the night fighting a losing battle against the rising water. During the calm of the hurricane, attempts were made to get the boiler running again, but these all failed. The second half of the storm then struck. The ship was now on the verge of foundering. Without power, the ship was carried along with the storm, so the strong winds would not abate. The next morning, two ships were spotted, including the brig Marine. 153 people, primarily women and children, managed to make their way over in lifeboats. However, the ship remained in an area of intense winds and heavy seas that pulled the ship and most of her company away from rescue and eventually took the ship and many of the roughly 425 people still on board to the bottom at around 8 pm that night. A Norwegian bark, Ellen, rescued an additional fifty from the waters.[1] Another three were picked up over a week later in a lifeboat.

Effects of the sinking

At the time of her sinking, the Central America carried gold then valued at approximately $2 million USD. The loss shook public confidence in the economy, and contributed to the Panic of 1857.

Commander William Lewis Herndon, a distinguished officer who had served during the Mexican-American War and explored the Amazon Valley, was captain of the Central America. Commander Herndon went down with his ship. Two US Navy ships were later named USS Herndon in his honor, as was the town of Herndon, Virginia.

Several books were written about this historic ship. The most famous book is America's Lost Treasure, a pictorial chronicle of the sinking and recovery.

Search and discovery

The ship was located by the use of Bayesian search theory and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) operated by the Columbus-America Discovery Group that was sent down on September 11, 1987. Significant amounts of gold and artifacts were recovered and brought to the surface by another ROV built specifically for the recovery. Thomas G. Thompson led the group. Thirty-nine insurance companies filed suit, claiming that because they paid damages for the lost gold, they had the right to it. The team that found it argued that the gold had been abandoned. After a legal battle, 92% of the gold was awarded to the discovery team in 1996.

The total value of the recovered gold was estimated at $100-150 million. A recovered gold ingot weighing 80 pounds sold for a record $8 million USD and is recognized as the most valuable piece of currency in the world.[2]

See also

Further reading

  • Kinder, Gary. (1998). Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea. Vintage Books. ISBN 0-87113-717-8
  • Thompson, Tommy. (2000). America's Lost Treasure. Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 0-87113-732-1
  • Klare, Norman. (1991 and 2005). The Final Voyage of the Central America, 1857: The Saga of a Gold Rush Steamship. ISBN 0-87062-210-2 and ISBN 0-9764403-0-X
  • Stone, Lawrence D. Search for the SS Central America: Mathematical Treasure Hunting. Technical Report, Metron Inc. Reston, Virginia.

Footnotes

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ [2]

External links

Central America may refer to:
  • Central America, a central region of the Americas
  • SS Central America, a steamship which sailed along the American coasts in the 1850s

See also

  • Middle America
  • Americas (terminology)

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steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving a propeller or paddlewheel.
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Central America (Spanish: Centroamérica or América Central) is a central geographic region of the Americas. It is variably defined either as the southern portion of North America, which connects with South America on the southeast, or a region of
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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The Panic of 1857 was a sudden downturn in the economy of the United States that occurred in 1857. The downturn was brief and the recovery strong, so that the impact was small. Over 5,000 businesses failed within a year.
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September 3 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events


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18th century - 19th century - 20th century
1820s  1830s  1840s  - 1850s -  1860s  1870s  1880s
1854 1855 1856 - 1857 - 1858 1859 1860

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
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Anthem
Himno Istmeño


Capital
(and largest city) Panama City

Official languages Spanish
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Colón is a sea port city on the Caribbean Sea coast of Panama. It is near the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal. The city is the capital of Panama's Colón Province and has traditionally been known as Panama's second city.
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City of New York
New York City at sunset

Flag
Seal
Nickname: The Big Apple, Gotham, The City that Never Sleeps
Location in the state of New York
Coordinates:
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William Lewis Herndon (25 October 1813 – 12 September 1857) was one of the United States Navy's outstanding explorers and seamen. He chose to go down with his ship while other lives were still aboard and while in command of the steamer Central America
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ton:
  1. long ton (simply ton in countries such as the United Kingdom which formerly used the Imperial system of weights and measures) is a weight ton or gross ton, and is 2,240 lb (exactly 1,016.0469088 kg).

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GOLD refers to one of the following:
  • GOLD (IEEE) is an IEEE program designed to garner more student members at the university level (Graduates of the Last Decade).
  • GOLD (parser) is an open source BNF parser.

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California Gold Rush 1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill. As news of the discovery spread, some 300,000 people came to California from the rest of the United States and abroad.
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Havana
La Habana
Havana skyline

Coat of arms
Nickname:
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September 9 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 1000 - Battle of Svolder, Notable naval battle of the Viking Age.

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The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale is a scale classifying most Western Hemisphere tropical cyclones that exceed the intensities of "tropical depressions" and "tropical storms", and thereby become hurricanes.
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The Carolinas is a term used in the United States to refer collectively to the states of North and South Carolina. The Carolinas were known as the Province of Carolina during America's colonial period, from 1663–1710.
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September 11th, 11th September, and 9/11 (pronounced "Nine-eleven") have been widely used in the Western media as a shorthand for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon in the United States of America.
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William Lewis Herndon (25 October 1813 – 12 September 1857) was one of the United States Navy's outstanding explorers and seamen. He chose to go down with his ship while other lives were still aboard and while in command of the steamer Central America
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Mexican-American War[1] was an armed military conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas. Mexico did not recognize the secession of Texas in 1836; it considered Texas a rebel province.
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prevew not available
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Two ships in the United States Navy have been named USS Herndon for William Herndon.
  • The first Herndon (DD-198) was a Clemson-class destroyer, commissioned in 1920 and transferred to the Royal Navy as HMS Churchill.

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Herndon, Virginia

Seal

Coordinates:
Country United States
State Virginia
County Fairfax
Settled 1858
Area
 - Town  4.
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Bayesian search theory is the application of Bayesian statistics to the search for lost objects. It has been used several times to find lost sea vessels, for example the USS Scorpion.
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Remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) is the common accepted name for tethered underwater robots in the offshore industry. ROVs are unoccupied, highly maneuverable and operated by a person aboard a vessel.
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Columbus-America Discovery Group was an association of engineers and investors dedicated to the discovery and salvage of the wreck of the SS Central America. Founded in 1987 by engineer and visionary Thomas G Thompson, the group succeeded in their mission.
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September 11th, 11th September, and 9/11 (pronounced "Nine-eleven") have been widely used in the Western media as a shorthand for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon in the United States of America.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1950s  1960s  1970s  - 1980s -  1990s  2000s  2010s
1984 1985 1986 - 1987 - 1988 1989 1990

Year 1987 (MCMLXXXVII
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SS Republic was a sidewheel steamship, originally named Tennessee (also named USS Mobile for a time), lost in a hurricane off the coast of Georgia in October 1865, en route to New Orleans.
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