Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea: The History and Discovery of the World's Richest Shipwreck Paperback – Illustrated, October 20, 2009

One of the best I have ever read. A long read but a fascinating one that ties people and families from the gold rush days that built much of California to the present-day technologies and unique inventors so needed to advance our technological knowledge base forward to more areas of discovery.

Timely delivery and book arrived as described.

One of my ancestors went to California during the gold rush in 1849, and struck it rich. I know very little about his life except that when he returned east with his gold in the ship Central America, it sank during a hurricane off the coast of South Carolina. Many passengers died. He lost his gold but survived with his life. He returned to his home in Minnesota and spent the rest of his life as a carriage driver for a taxi company. This book describes the incredible story of recent attempts to locate this ship and recover much of the gold that was lost. It is an incredible story!

Though I have never before had an interest in treasure hunting, this book was so intriguing and well crafted that I continued reading deep into the night.

This book contains two stories: one of the sinking of a ship laden with gold; the other of its recovery many years later in a different era. It is well written and is all the good things that other reviewers have said. Yet for me there was a growing feeling of discomfort that I could not quite identify at first--a distraction that came close to ruining the second story.A book without pictures compels the reader to imagine what the characters in the work look like. The main character in this work is Tommy Thompson. After the first 1,000 "Tommys" (Tommy said this, Tommy did that) I found I could only envisage a little boy called Tommy wearing a Halloween pirate suit (not named Tommy as almost all of the time the name on the birth certificate is Thomas). By page 400 I still could not picture a grown man with a precocious mind and the qualities of a leader, shaker, and mover, called Tommy. I started hearing the "na na na na na na" mocking phrase that little kids use to taunt each other in my head, but with the word "Tommy." I HAD to see what this grown man looked like before I could finish reading the book.Fortunately there is a web site (URL's not permitted in reviews, sorry) that contains a photograph that is probably Tommy. If it isn't, I was at least able to rid myself of the mental image of little Tommy after seeing it. There are several superb photographs on this site, a few of which would have added an enormous plus to the book, which contains only one photograph--that of the author.Little Chucky grows up to be Charles or Chuck. Martial arts master and TV star Chuck Norris, for example. Charles Norris would work, Chucky Norris or Chucky Chukson....I don't think so. Little Tommy grows up to be Tom or Thomas, or even Double T (the sobriquet given by George Bush to his Tommy Thompson). Some of the backers of the project referred to Tommy as Tom, and interestingly, the judge that ruled in Tommy's favor referred to him in his ruling as Thompson, thus keeping the juvenile name and image out of the courtroom.If you think this commentary is trivial nonsense, try to imagine this: Tommy's right hand man was Bob Evans. Suppose he was instead Bobby Bobson. Then we would have had Tommy Thompson and Bobby Bobson starring in: The Bobbsie Twins hunt for Lost Treasure. A little hard to sell don't you think?It's a great book. Read it. But check the website first. Not only will you see Thompson, but you will the ship Arctic Discoverer and lots of other fascinating images that should have been included in the book.

In a story that spans more than a century, Gary Kinder gives us the account of the SS Central America's sinking and it's discovery by one of those prototypical eccentric geniuses, Tommy Thompson.The book begins with the historical account of the SS Central America, a ship making the run from Panama to the US east coast, bringing people and gold from the California "Gold Rush" that sank in a hurricane in 1857. It's an extremely well written account that goes beyond the bare facts and is constructed from first-person accounts of the survivors. These chapters set the stage for the recovery of the treasure because it lays out the conflicting evidence on exactly where the ship went down.The book then moves into a biography of Tommy Thompson and how he became drawn into the problem of doing work in the deep ocean as well as how he became interested in the SS Central America. Thompson viewed the enterprise of treasure-hunting as bringing together every aspect of a system, from finance to robotics and Tommy had the rare ability to ask "what next" and "what if that doesn't work" and have ready answers or alternatives. That the ship was found and the treasure recovered - tons of gold in the form of bars, coins and dust - is due almost exclusively to Thompson.I was impressed with the book. It was exciting and I kept reading at a sitting - often longer than I had planned - because of the suspense the author created in each chapter. Really, it is very well written and a good read. The only things I didn't like was that there were no pictures of the treasure and the book ends at the treasure's finding. There's no exposition of the finds outside of a couple items recovered. Thompson was very forward-thinking in that he planned to recover more than just the gold and other artifacts that have historical and cultural significance were also recovered. The book ends without showing the reader all that had been found and the significance of the finds.None the less, this is a very good read for fans of history, suspense, technology or folks just looking for a great read that's a little different. Good book - four stars.

This is a fabulous adventure story about a long lost shipwreck and the cargo of gold she carried . The sinking at the time was one of the worst at sea ever for America and a loss of over four hundred people and a total of twenty one tons of California gold rush gold etc. The salvage was amazing and the story made really interesting reading right through , well worth buying .

This is a very interesting book, giving an insight into the background of a shipwreck, and the recovery of part of its cargo. It should be read in the knowledge that it was edited/approved by one of the main characters, and therefore, gives a rather glowing account of his (Tommy Thompson's) exploits.

Item just as expected; safely and swiftly packaged - and with an excellent pricing too, so absolutely nothing to complain about!! We're very pleased and would recommend this vendor again. Thank you.

Wonderful, wonderful adventure of real life quest.

My husband and I read this out loud to each other over the course of a winter. It is a great read!