History's Mysteries - The S.S. Central America “Ship of Gold” (History Channel Documentary)

[Music] the sinking the SS Central America in 1857 was the worst peacetime disaster at sea in American history the Titanic of its day for more than a hundred and thirty years the priceless rectly undisturbed until a group of ingenious engineers in the 1980s launched an epic quest to find the treasure a quest that was also marked by disaster join us for ship of gold [Music] September 1988 hundreds of miles off the east coast of the United States a research vessel maneuvers through the waves a spectacular treasure disappeared eight thousand feet into the cold lightless deaths impossibly far from the reach of man for more than 130 years the location of these riches has remained a mystery but now a visionary inventor and his team of high-tech explorers use a revolutionary robot submarine to probe the ocean floor they are searching for a tiny needle in an enormous haystack the location of a shipwreck a legendary 19th century steamship that was caught in a monstrous hurricane and sunk somewhere in an area larger than the state of Rhode Island the odds of finding the ship are small but the reward is beyond imagination the ship holds the greatest lost treasure in US history untold wealth resulting from the California Gold Rush it is 1848 the course of American history is forever altered by a chance discovery a young carpenter named James Marshall is inspecting work in John Sutter's California sawmill and makes an incredible find my eye was caught by something shining in the bottom of the ditch I reached my hand down and picked it up it made my heart thump for our certain it was gold Marshall and Sutter try to keep the discovery a secret but soon word leaks out and gold fever is an international epidemic thousands swarm to California from across America and the world and some strike it rich tremendous amount of wealth came out of the ground tens of millions of dollars immediately were flowing to the into the US economy directly from the hills and streams of California the frontier town of San Francisco explodes when gold is discovered fewer than 500 pioneers live in the remote outpost by the end of 18-49 the population swells to more than 25,000 but a serious problem develops official US government money is in short supply in California as prospectors come into town from the gold fields they have no way to convert their gold dust and nuggets into cash you could use the gold dust itself but that was very very difficult there's stories of people going into it letsa loom and in exchange for a shot of whiskey the bartender would dip down with his thumb and forefinger into the man's leather pouch and pinch out a bit of gold dust so pretty soon the owners of the saloons would hire only big burly guys and asked him how much can you raise in a pinch the next year 18-49 several enterprising craftsman skilled in handling precious metals try to bring order to this imprecise system these assayer's create their own mints converting gold into coins since there was a need for a medium of exchange you had these people melting down the gold dust and stamping out 5 10 $20 gold pieces and putting their names on it and if they had a decent reputation they would circulate for large quantities as sailors melt the dust and nuggets into gold bars these bars were used as large transaction currency a bar such as one of these smaller ones probably would be an individual's accumulation in his pouch maybe from an entire season the larger bars these may have been an accumulation of larger amounts of dust perhaps at a banking house or at an assay office itself the US government finally opens the San Francisco mint in 1854 to produce official gold coins this new money stabilizes the California financial problem and fuels the American economy every month two shipments leave California with millions of dollars in gold the massive movement of people and gold demands better transportation with no cross-country railroad yet traveling by land is a hazardous six-month Trek sailing around Cape Horn is also a treacherous six-month journey of 13,000 miles the fastest and most expensive route is to take a steamship to Central America cross Panama on a newly established railroad then sail on another steamship the remainder of the way this cuts travel time to less than a month steamer day in San Francisco is always a festive occasion and August 20th 1857 is no exception the SS Sonora is bound for Panama with a colorful group of passengers hailing from almost every state and nine countries Billy birch the star of the San Francisco minstrel show is traveling with his new bride Virginia Rufus Lockwood a prominent lawyer is returning to his Indiana home with his family George Dawson is a freed slave who has done well as a hotel porter he's on his way to visit relatives in Rochester New York and Ansel and Addie Easton were married just this morning and arrived at the dock with a trunk full of wedding gifts the ship also carries tons of gold on its way to East Coast banks a giant shipment of freshly minted gold coins hundreds of assayer's gold bars as well as 15 tons of identical 50-pound commercial ingots it is estimated that the shipment equals 20 percent of all the gold currently held in Wall Street's vaults this total doesn't even include the gold carried by the individual passengers there was no paper money in San Francisco at the time not a single piece of paper money was used gold was it someone wanted to take five or ten thousand dollars worth of assets back from San Francisco to New York they did it in the form of gold coins there were more than 300 miners who always carried gold with them some carriers in their pockets and around money belt it was said it took a couple of partners to handle it each trunk of the passengers but they were so loaded with gold the two-week journey down to Panama he's uneventful at E Eastern notes the pleasant trip in her diary the voyage to the Isthmus was one long delight with smooth waters sunny skies and a joyous congenial company on September 3rd the Senora reaches Panama City there the passengers transfer to the Panama Railroad for a four hour journey to the port of Aspinwall the last leg is to board the side wheels steamship Central America 477 passengers and 101 crewmen set sail for the week-long voyage to New York the SS Central America is one of the most trusted ships sailing the Panama route the 278 foot steamer entered service in 1853 and over the next four years carries nearly a third of the gold transported from California to New York steam ships are considered a technological wonder and the Central America is one of the most luxurious and expensive of its day fares range from 150 to 300 dollars the equivalent of a year's salary for an average miner at the helm is Captain William Lewis Herndon a legendary figure in the US Navy in 1851 he led the first scientific expedition to explore the Amazon River and his illustrated book about his adventures is a best-seller now this made Herndon a nationally known figure and he was called the dr. Livingstone of the Amazon Mark Twain read his book said it changed his life and inspired him to write life on the Mississippi the Central America was originally named the George Law after a founder of the steamship line but in 1857 the name is changed after law leaves the company this is just the second trip under the new name and some experienced travelers consider this a bad omen Ansel Easton had asked captain Herndon about this on the trip and he said I think it's bad luck to change the name of a vessel and Herndon replied emphatically I don't believe in bad luck the seven-day trip starts out routinely the 477 passengers stroll the decks engage in quiet conversations or read they kept up their journals they played cards there was some horrendous gambling going on aboard some of them came aboard rich and left poor others came aboard poor and left rich after four days the Central America makes a brief stop in Cuba passenger Jay a foster writes in his diary we left a van at nine o'clock in the morning of the 8th with clear weather and every prospect for a pleasant passage that evening Ansel and addy Easton joined captain Herndon at his table and the conversation turns to the topic of shipwrecks how well I remember captain Herndon's face as he said well I'll never survive my ship if she goes down I go under her keel but let us talk of something more cheerful [Music] the next day Wednesday September 9th the pleasant voyage begins to change in the morning Virginia birch is on deck chatting with a group of other women passengers a squall came up and the wind blew like a whirlwind and we had to go downstairs miner Oliver manlove reports that soon the swirling wind reaches gale force in the afternoon there was a change it changed our feeling and drove the waves into mountains and valleys and made the old ship stagger at first there is little concern after all they are sailing on the great steamship Central America the prevailing attitude would be well we'll ride it out and maybe it will be uncomfortable for dinner tonight but tomorrow will be a nice day the storm begins to make it hard to work ship and make it very difficult to see her the ship begins complain you can hear the Timbers groaning and creaking the principal problem is there is no seasickness speaking destroy among capacitors a great deal of mystery and this misery brings on apprehension that night torrential rains begin Thursday is even worse by nightfall 30-foot waves are crashing over the decks into the staterooms and many passengers must abandon their cabins by Friday it's clear this is no ordinary storm they had run full force into a hurricane in its beginning and it got worse and worse the winds got higher the waves got higher and they ran into trouble without knowing how long it would last or how intense it would be at about 9:00 a.m. the ship's chief engineer George Ashby attempts to calm the passengers by declaring let it blow we're ready for it but Ashby knows better just moments before he reported to captain Herndon that the ship had sprung a leak it doesn't seem possible a ship as sturdy as the Central America succumbing to a storm but below decks the water is steadily rising the ship's engineers try in vain to pack the leaks with blankets and old sails captain Herndon believes if they can keep the ship headed into the wind they can survive the engines of the bilge bus must have rank at full power to keep the fires lit coal must be moved in wheelbarrows but now this ship is listing badly and tossing too violently to navigate the heavy carts the crew tries a bucket brigade but they can't meet the engines appetite for fuel by noon Friday September 11th the engines and the pumps stop Herndon kinglee it felt the responsibility for the passengers and the treasure on board he tried every possible means to control the bustle they tried to manipulate the sails but in this terrible storm that as soon as the sail went up it would be shattered but it went the ship is now at the mercy of the wind and waves Herndon otters all men even passengers to form a bucket brigade to try to bail the stricken vessel more than 500 men form long lines that coil from the lower decks of the gangways throughout the night they continue the exhausting task occasionally Ansel Easton breaks away to comfort his new bride addy with clasped hands we talked to each other of our dear dear friends of our brief happiness together we resolved that when the last moment came we would tie ourselves together and the same wave would engulf us both some men collapsed from exhaustion and women volunteered to join the bailing effort however the men are too gallant to allow it Annie Easton remembers her wedding gifts of crackers and wine she brought a board and distributes them to the workers for 30 grueling hours the men persevere but they are fighting a losing battle the ship was coming apart she's are all over you twisting violently the welders breaking over or she's taking more water after she's sinking down further and further aft you're looking a doom straight in the eye on Saturday morning captain Herndon tells the passengers not to abandon hope but privately admits there is no hope unless the storm abates or some vessel sails into sight the Central America is slowly but surely sinking but then at 2:00 o'clock Saturday afternoon after three days of fighting the storm a cry is heard sails whole when you lessly a small freighter the marine appears on the horizon she is also being battered by the storm but her captain Hyrum Burton maneuvers next to the Central America and at great risk to his ship agrees to try to rescue passengers captain Herndon orders women and children to be lowered by ropes in the lifeboats we didn't tie their skirt so they won't blow up over their heads and struggle down at first the road to the Marine is a grueling half hour but the ships drift farther apart until each trip is a torturous six mile row of two and a half hours eventually the rescue efforts become impossible the men were beyond the point of going back there comes a point when the man can do no more and they were there they've gone beyond the plain to reasonable endurance 100 people are safe on the marine including all the 31 women and 28 children but 478 men are still stranded on board the Central America it was growing dark and the boatman refused to go back again to the ship I put my face in my hands to retch it to speak reproaching myself that I had not stayed to share my dear ones fate now with the situation hopeless the love of gold is forgotten on the sinking ship some men unbuckle their gold stuffed belts and fling their harder and treasure to the decks to lighten their weight others cast gold into the howling wind knowing it is useless to them now desperate men start ripping off wooden doors and hatches preparing to be floating in the sea the ship was doomed that people knew it and the only hope they had was the save themselves captain Herndon Don's his full dress uniform and prepares to go down with his ship he takes his position in the wheelhouse and delivers his final orders buckle on your life preservers were going down the ship merges three times with each jump men leap overboard finally at about 9:00 p.m. Saturday evening the Central America plunges beneath the waves there were hundreds of human beings floating out on the bosom of the ocean with no hope but death some were crying God saved me God have mercy on me some were screaming some crying and some praying for hours survivors struggle in the water minstrel storm Billy birch tries to keep spirits up and tells comic tales of sea monsters but many just give up and slip beneath the sea it must have been the most awful thing to behold they did not realize that there was going to be another miraculous delivery that night the Swedish freighter Ellen is sailing through the storm at one point her captain Anders Johnson is struck by a sea bird swooping down on his head he views this as an omen and decides to change course incredibly at 1:00 a.m. captain Johnson sails the Ellen directly into the mass of dying men I found that we were surrounded with persons floating in the water the darkness of the night made it impossible to see them but the voice is calling for aid running in every direction over the next eight hours 50 men including Billy birch and Oliver manlove are pulled from the water but these are not the last survivors remarkably George Dawson and two others in a lifeboat are rescued nine days later after drifting in the Gulf Stream over 400 miles survivors are all taken to port the women on the marine believe their loved ones have all perished then in a twist that seemingly only a Hollywood screenwriter could imagine newlyweds Ansel and Addie Easton are reunited we wept together as well as rejoiced and for several nights after we couldn't either of asleep so vivid were the scenes we had passed through my watch my beautiful ring wedding presents were all lost but I have my darling husband the most precious jewel of all the sinking of the Central America is the biggest news story of the day four hundred and twenty five are dead the courageous captain Herndon has gone down with his ship and a fortune in gold is lost The Telegraph is new to the country and the wires hummed with the accounts the story quickly makes headlines in over 200 American newspapers more than 150 people have survived and many tell their tale leaving a remarkable record of the tragedy the news also fuels a financial panic banks that back their notes with gold are sent into a tailspin by the tremendous loss of bullion also confidence is shaken in the entire system of shipping California gold by mid October 1857 banks closed businesses fail and the nation is gripped by the greatest financial crash of the 19th century in effect it was like the stock market crash in 1929 you already had the basis for the panic but this was basically the straw where the gold that broke the camel's back for months newspapers recount the tale and editorials demand greater safety at sea the incident helps rally support for the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad captain Herndon is honored as a hero and a memorial is erected at the US Naval Academy eventually the story of the Central America is eclipsed by the Civil War and the tragedy passes into legend the year is 1988 scientists and engineers from the Columbus America discovery group searched for the SS Central America and the vast treasure she carried however the ship lies hidden some 200 miles off the coast of North Carolina in 8,000 feet of water most believe it will be impossible to find in this immense and hostile environment finding an object such as this and the bottom of the ocean is a very difficult task the environment is just black down there no light exists the water is cold when a ship that goes to the bottom at least a mile or more down the pressure is nervous probability finding it was very very small the effort was launched from an unusual place for a deep ocean project Columbus Ohio the project's founder and leader tommy Thompson is an ingenious ocean engineer with a lifetime passion for the challenges of the deep sea he spent a decade researching and planning the project he then enlisted Bob Evans a geologist and historian assembled a team of over 100 contributing scientists and engineers and raised over ten million dollars from private investors who believed in his vision everyone involved with the activity knew it was a very risky investment but it was definitely a scientific approach this was not a pie in the sky activity it was a very detailed scientific engineering plan on how to search and find the Central America there research vessel the Arctic Discoverer is a 30 year old icebreaker they refitted with state-of-the-art navigational communications and electronic systems they designed and built Nemo the first robotic submarine specially created for deep ocean recovery of historic shipwrecks the submersible gives them unique mechanical eyes and arms establishing for the first time a working presence on the deep ocean floor a feat previously thought impossible but ultimately one of the Explorers most powerful tools is the rich historical data the dozens of first-hand accounts recorded more than a century ago to help pinpoint the location of the shipwreck Thompson spent years gathering the accounts and then along with the team analyzed the data we were looking for clues about the physics of the final hours of the Central America anything about the wind anything about the currents anything about the condition the vessel the visibility of celestial objects things of that nature this information was then fed into a computer and a probability chart was generated the probability map this grid of numbers tells you where the highest probability areas are and where lower probability areas are and it that way we were able to construct a fairly efficient search plan still their search area is gigantic over 1,400 square miles in the summer of 1986 they spent 40 days at sea towing a specially adapted deepwater sonar device the side looking sonar mapped a three-mile wide path sending back images of the ocean floor that winter they analyzed the thousands of intriguing shapes and patterns we had things that we thought yes that's a shipwreck that's a shipwreck sometimes they look like shipwrecks they're shipshape and sometimes they don't sometimes they look kind of like blobs and you wonder well is that a shipwreck is that a degraded shipwreck is that just a pile of stuff that somebody like dumped over the side in the summer of 1987 they located a promising spot they called site H Nemo's lights and cameras cut through the blackness but at first the images were difficult to interpret everybody was very anxious to figure out what it was they were seeing was this the real site of the SS Central America not looking in at the monitor I was seeing what turns out to be a lot of coal just a lot of coal and it seemed well we ought to be seeing coal and we probably ought to be seeing a lot of coal and it had period pottery we were picking up things with British registry dates in the 1850s very much like the dishes and such that you would expect to find on the Central America they spent the entire summer exploring site H but it turned out not to be the Central America however the team still valued the experience what went on was tremendous learning for us all we were better able after experiencing everything that we experienced on site h to evaluate what we were seeing we're also learning about nemo systems and what would work and what wouldn't work the next summer technical problems and bad weather hinder their progress but then on September 11th 1988 Nemo was lowered to examine a new site we put down our equipment and we began proceeding across the seabed and it wasn't too long until we started picking up some debris and then all of a sudden [Music] the side we love the Central America loomed into view it was the most amazing thing here was the one architectural feature that could identify the Central America as a side-wheel steamship rate in our monitors staring up at us as if to say here I am on the Central America you found me three days later Nemo recovers the ship's Bell the inscription confirms this is in fact the Central America now to find the legendary gold the team identifies a likely spot the location is concealed with sediment so Nemo directs special fans to dust off the area we waited perhaps about a half an hour for the dust to clear from this and when it did it was the storybook treasure you've got gold bars tumbled across each other like pick-up sticks we've got gold coins that are in original stacks that you can see you know as if they were rolled up by a bank and just place their wars what we were seeing was an area we ended up calling the garden of gold it was just amazing at this point it's almost beyond comprehension what we're looking at it's what you dream about is children we're taught in the fables of our childhood all these stories about finding treasure and we've done it the Columbus America discovery group has found a mind-boggling field of gold on the bottom of the sea the challenge now is to bring up the treasure from the crushing 8,000 foot depths the group is committed to documenting and maintaining the historical integrity of the shipwreck site also the better the condition of the gold the more valuable that will be on the market tommy thompson has spent years designing building and modifying nemo to handle this painstaking task the remarkable six ton robot seized with ten video cameras and its many arms can lift hundreds of pounds as well as pick up objects as delicate as fine crystal individual coins can be picked up using a small suction picker device and like the rubber darts we used to play with when we were kids then it's put into a slot in a recovery module which are these trays that we've designed with different holes in them and each and every one of these pieces is logged as it is picked up and it goes into that large stacks of coins are encased in a silicone rubber mold and raised in blocks containing as many as 300 or more coins at a time when the gold reaches the surface most is encapsulated in a thick residue but the group develops a special process to deal with the effects of the ocean our objective in all of this is simply to reveal the original surfaces of the coins and not alter anything in any way they find that the coating is only a surface deposit which along with a cold ocean has actually preserved the coins as an investment test you know I'd clean lots of coins had curated lots of coins I've worked on million dollar coins similar to curating a painting and I'd never seen anything so degraded able to convert into this perfect item this is typically what we might see after one day of soaking in the solution there's a little bit of rust left on this coin but very nearly finished very beautiful gold coin the meticulous recovery continues three tons of gold including hundreds of bars and over 7,000 gold coins some coins are the privately minted variety but most are mint condition US $20 gold pieces known as double eagles it is unique it is truly unique they're in the condition that they would have been when they came out of the mint in San Francisco in 1857 it's as if a hundred and fifty years have been washed away sometimes as these coins emerge from the residue a powerful connection is made with the doomed passengers on the ship one coin reveals a fingerprint from the last person to touch the coin 140 years ago the most valuable piece in the collection has been named the Eureka Bar the largest known ingot from the California Gold Rush it's probable but not very easy this weighs as much as a as a standard 80 pound sack of cement and it's in a package about the size of a standard brick the face value of the bar in 1857 was over $17,000 at today's price that's more than three hundred thousand dollars in gold but despite these fabulous riches there is no celebrating for the Explorers on October 5th 1989 they bring the gold to Norfolk Virginia to finalize the paperwork on their claim when we did that we were met at the dock with the news that there were 39 insurance entities that had filed suit saying that the gold was theirs insurance companies claimed to have paid losses on the treasure that was lost on the Central America for the next 10 years the Columbus America discovery group fights a complex and expensive legal battle while the gold sits in a vault the insurance companies claim ownership while the discoverers argue the gold has been abandoned numerous legal opinions and appeals follow but finally in 1996 the courts award the columbus america group over 92% of the treasure still disputes prevent the gold from being sold then in 1998 point manly a sports agent and coin expert since childhood forms an investment group to attempt to untangle the problems he persevered through two years of non-stop negotiations and finally brings the treasure to market February 10th 2000 for the first time the gold is publicly displayed at the Long Beach California coin show and the response is overwhelming certain pieces of the treasure talk certain pieces of the treasure tell stories I saw expert coin dealers that have been in the business for 40 years come twice a day three days in a row six times to see the same thing because every time it said something different to them every time they looked at the gold it was telling a different story individual coins once worth $20 are now selling for 2500 to over $80,000 we've so coins throughout our nearly 250 year old history we've never sailed coins as exciting as these they don't exist take the double eagles they are rare a good one on a good day will fetch $100,000 the value of the gold bars is still unknown although it is anticipated the 80 pound Eureka bar will command an extraordinary Sun we've turned down one person offered a seven and a half million dollars for it because they wanted to have the kingpin of the treasure the numismatic community were very very excited about here work some coins and fabulous condition plus many of these ingots from these companies never been known before this is significant this is history in your hands this is more than just gold this is gold turned into history we all know that America doesn't have crown jewels we don't have these baubles of State and this in a way are the crown jewels it is it is the national treasure so what is the total value of the recovered goal from what we've seen and what we've been able to gather I think an estimate close to a hundred million to a hundred and fifty million is right there in the ballpark after years of recovery expeditions the Columbus America discovery group believes they have brought up nearly all of the mint quality coins and assayer's gold bars however the group plans future explorations to locate the 15 tonnes of identical 50-pound commercial ingots but the efforts of the dedicated team and the patient investors have yielded far more than gold many scientific disciplines benefit from their deep ocean research marine biologists identified 12 previously unknown species of animal life and research physicians analyzed unusual sponges for cancer research also photos letters clothing and artifacts recovered from the Central America are remarkably well preserved creating an unprecedented time capsule of the life times and spirit of this landmark period of American history and finally there is one additional artifact spotted by Nemo's cameras it is a trunk the group takes months to develop special techniques to raise the fragile item inside they discover many artifacts some are wrapped and sealed packages and then they realize these are wedding gifts the trunk belonged to the newlyweds Ansel and addy Easton Ansel and addy Easton eventually returned to California where they gave birth to two children they named their daughter after the two ships that save their lives Jenny Ellen marine Easton however 11 years after the sinking Ansel Easton was thrown from a horse and killed discover more about this and every history's mysteries topic at History Channel calm [Music] [Music]

Channel: Peter David Documentaries

Views: 538,809

Rating: 4.6413007 out of 5

Keywords: SS Central America, Sunken Treasure, California Gold Rush, Maritime Disaster, Shipwreck, Panic of 1857, History Channel Documentary, Tommy Gregory Thompson, America's Lost Treasure, Shipwreck Documentary, In Search Of History

Id: wzyHO4Obo78

Length: 41min 2sec (2462 seconds)

Published: Fri May 04 2018