Steamer Golden Gate...

[jeff k]

I've done some research on the Golden Gate, and I believe there still may be enough gold coins on the site/surf to make the casual diver/beach hunter happy.

The wooden side-wheel steamship GOLDEN GATE was built for the Pacific Mail Steamship Co by William H. Webb, New York (hull #56); keel laid 1 July 1850, launched 21 January 1851, along with the sailing ship ISAAC BELL (for Fox & Livingston) and the clipper GAZELLE (for Taylor & Merrill). 2067 tons; 262 feet x 40 feet x 30 feet 6 inches (length x beam x depth of hold); 2 funnels, 3 masts, 3 decks, round stern, round tuck, spread-eagle head; mean draft 10 ft 2 in, load draft 13 ft 8 in; two oscillating engines (Novelty Iron Works): bore 85 inches, stroke 9 feet, steam pressure 18 psi, approximate ihp 1150, 14 revolutions per minute; wheel diameter 33 feet 6 inches, float width 10 feet 6 inches.
2 August 1851, maiden voyage, New York - Rio de Janeiro - Valparaiso - Panama (arrived 16 October) - San Francisco (arrived 19 November 1851; her passage from Panama to San Francisco of 11 days, 4 hours, stood as a record until 1855). The GOLDEN GATE entered the Panama-San Francisco service, where she proved a fast, but unlucky vessel: in 1852, an outbreak of cholera aboard resulted in 84 deaths; in May 1853, she nearly collided with the Vanderbilt steamship SIERRA NEVADA off the Mexican coast; 1854, engine breakdown and grounding at Point Loma; October 1857, broken shaft. 24 July 1862, sailed from San Francisco for Panama. 27 July, about 15 miles from Manzanillo, Mexico, fire was discovered in the engine room, and the vessel was headed for what is now called Playa de Oro, in order to beach her. Many of the passengers sought refuge in the stern, but the flames spread in that direction, and when boats were launched in the heavy surf the occupants were crushed against the ship or drowned; the ship broke up in the surf. Between 175 [Dunbaugh and Thomas] and 223 [Kemble] passengers and crew lost their lives, together with the baggage, mail, and nearly all the cargo of $1.4 million in specie (gold valued at $300,000 was recovered from the wreck and brought to San Francisco by the Pacific Mail steamship CONSTITUTION in February 1863).

I don't have the exact coordinates, but my "X" on the map shows the general location.

 

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[Mackaydon]

Jeff:

The beach at Playa de Oro is marked on maps. It can be reached by a dirt road that runs perpendicular to the highway. It is nearly impassable in rainy weather (don't think I'd even take a 4-wheeler in there).

What is interesting is that the beach is still 'virgin'; there are only houses further north of the 'wreck location'. What makes the site nearly impossible to work is the constant high surf that can be heard sometimes from over a mile away. It breaks close to the shore.

At the turn of the last century, one paper (NYTimes??) reported the succcess of a hard hat diver with extra weights working in that area and recovering part of the manifest (gold).

There exists online a large picture (Currier and Ives) of that beach vessel all aflame; quite impressive. There is also available a great narrative regarding how the survivors made it back (south) to town, walking through the jungle.

It's a great challenge yet the reward could be staggering. The caveat is (I believe): Taking treasure out of Mexico is against the law; some 'agreement' would first have to be made with the authorities.

I walked on that beach about 6/7 years ago. What I remember most was the sand was like quicksand; as if you were walking down a sand dune. With that much instability and the intensity of the suft, no telling how deep the target might be today.
Did someone just think cofferdam?
Don...........

 

[chipveres]

Before you get too far into this; look for a resort motel not far away built by an American expat diver. You need to subtract what he recovered & used to build the motel from a possible recovery.

Chip V.

 

[jeff k]

Chip... That American is mentioned on the link below. I still think a little beach/surf detecting could prove rewarding. At the least, it looks like it would be a nice vacation.

http://www.gomanzanillo.com/beaches/index.htm

 

[Mackaydon]

I believe you are both referring to Bart Varelmann. In his autobiography, INNKEEPER he notes that he arrived in Manzanillo about fifty years ago "with a dream and an Aqua Lung (the prototype of the scuba gear I use today) to locate a shipment of gold that went down off the coast near Manzanillo in 1862."
Instead he found a tiny inn on the beach for sale (cheap) which had been devastated by a killer hurricane in 1959. A great base of operations for his search for the gold, he figured, but the real treasure turned out to be the little hotel.

I believe that popular hotel is called La Posada and that he invested his savings, not proceeds from the sale of Golden Gate treasure, to obtain his hotel. NWS, I don't think anyone will disagree that at least part of that treasure of gold is still there--waiting.
Don.......

 

[allen_idaho]

about $500,000 worth was recovered in the early 1960's. I forget by who. However it was carrying around 1.6 Million in unrefined gold from the california gold rush at the time it went down.

 

[Mackaydon]

IMO, there is no 'wreck', only the site of where the burning vessel ran aground in the surf; the vessel is long gone.
Looking back over my comment of two years ago, I'll revise it to say the dirt road (as now shown on the map above) could be driven in dry weather, and makes an interesting side trip from Manzanillo.
Don..........

 

[jeff k]

I recently found this court case.

THE UNITED STATES v. THOMAS J. L. SMILEY et al. United States Circuit Court, District Of California, 1864.

(6 Sawyer, 640.)

The steamer Golden Gate left San Francisco for Panama on July 21, 1862, and had ou board " treasure " amounting to $1,450,000. On July 27, when three miles and a half from the Mexican shore, fire broke out, the steamer headed for the shore and went to pieces about two hundred and fifty feet from the shore, at a point fifteen miles north of Manzanillo, in Mexico. Of the money on board $1,200,000 were ultimately recovered in port by Smiley and his associates. The shippers and Smiley disagreeing about his share of the recovered treasure, he was indicted in March, 1864, in U. S. Circuit Court for plundering and stealing the treasure from the Golden Gate, under the ninth section of act of Congress of March 3, 1825 (4 St. L., 116) which provides "that if any person . . . shall plunder, steal or destroy any money, goods, merchandise or other effects from or belonging to any ship or vessel or boat or raft, which shall be wrecked, lost, stranded, or cast away upon the sea, or upon any reef, shore, bank, or rocks of the sea, or in any other place within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States," he " shall be deemed guilty of a felony," &C.1

1 This statement is substituted for that of the report. — Ed.

By the court, Mr. Justice Field. We are not prepared to decide that the statute does not apply to a case where the vessel has gone to pieces, to which the goods belonged of which larceny is alleged. It would fail of one of its objects if it did not extend to goods, which the officers and men of a stranded or wrecked vessel had succeeded in getting ashore, so long as a claim is made by them to the property, though before its removal the vessel may have been broken up. We are inclined to the conclusion that, until the goods are removed from the place where landed, or thrown ashore, from the stranded or wrecked vessel, or cease to be under the charge of the officers or other parties interested, the act would apply if a larceny of them were committed, even though the vessel may in the mean time have gone entirely to pieces and disappeared from the sea. But in this case the treasure taken had ceased to be under the charge of the officers of the Golden Gate, or of its underwriters, when the expedition of Smiley was fitted out, and all efforts to recover the property had been given up by them. The treasure was then in the situation of derelict or abandoned property, which could be acquired by any one who might have the energy and enterprise to seek its recovery. In our judgment the act was no more intended to reach cases where property thus abandoned is recovered, than it does to reach property voluntarily thrown into the sea, and afterwards fished from its depths.

But if the act covered a case where the property was recovered after its abandonment by the officers of the vessel and others interested in it, we are clear that the circuit court has not jurisdiction of the offence here charged. The treasure recovered was buried in the sand several feet under the water, and was within one hundred and fifty feet from the shore of Mexico. The jurisdiction of that country over all offences committed within a marine league of its shore, not on a vessel of another nation, was complete and exclusive.

Wheaton, in his treatise on International Law, after observing that " the maritime territory of every state extends to the ports, harbors, bays, and mouths of rivers and adjacent parts of the sea inclosed by headlands, belonging to the same state," says: "The general usage of nations superadds to this extent of territorial jurisdiction a distance of a marine league, or as far as a cannon-shot will reach from the shore, along all the coasts of the state. Within these limits its rights of property and territorial jurisdiction are absolute, and exclude those of every other nation." (Pt. 2, c. 4, sec. 6.)

The criminal jurisdiction of the government of the United States — that is, its jurisdiction to try parties for offences committed against its laws—may in some instances extend to its citizens everywhere. Thus, it may punish for violation of treaty stipulations by its citizens abroad, for offences committed in foreign countries where, by treaty, jurisdiction is conceded for that purpose, as in some cases in China and in the Barbary states; it may provide for offences committed on deserted islands, and on an uninhabited coast, by the officers and seamen of vessels sailing under its flag. It may also punish derelictions of duty by its ministers, consuls, and other representatives abroad. But in all such cases it will be found that the law of Congress indicates clearly the extraterritorial character of the act at which punishment is aimed. Except in cases like these, the criminal jurisdiction of the United States is necessarily limited to their own territory, actual or constructive. Their actual territory is coextensive with their possessions, including a marine league from their shores into the sea.

This limitation of a marine league was adopted because it was formerly supposed that a cannon-shot would only reacli to that extent. It is essential that the absolute domain of a country should extend into the sea so far as necessary for the protection of its inhabitants against injury from combating belligerents while the country itself is neutral. Since the great improvement of modern times in ordnance, the distance of a marine league, which is a little short of three English miles, may, perhaps, have to be extended so as to equal the reach of the projecting power of modern artillery. The constructive territory of the United States embraces vessels sailing under their flag; wherever they go they carry the laws of their country, and for a violation of them their officers and men may be subjected to pnnishment. But when a vessel is destroyed and goes to the bottom, the jurisdiction of the country over it necessarily ends, as much so as it would over an island which should sink into the sea.

In this case it appears that the Golden Gate was broken up; not a vestige of the vessel remained. Whatever was afterwards done with reference to property once on board of her, which had disappeared under the sea, was done out of the jurisdiction of the United States as completely as though the steamer had never existed.

We are of opinion, therefore, that the Circuit Court has no jurisdiction to try the offence charged, even if, under the facts admitted by the parties, any offence was committed. According to the stipulation, judgment sustaining the demurrer will be, therefore, entered and the defendants discharged.1

1" In England and America, the jurisdiction is generally assumed over its citizens in reaped to all civil acts, transactions, rights, or duties done or arising abroad. This is true, even though the act be a tort, and though it amount to a breach of the peace. Tims a British subject is liable to a civil action in England for an assault and battery committed by him, say in Italy. The same would be true in the United States. But by a very ancient principle of the English common law. adopted in this country, all crimes are strictly local, and the offenders are justiciable only in the countries where the criminal act is done." Pomeroy's Int. Law, 205.

It is, however, true that in a few instances English and American courts take jurisdiction of crimes committed by their respective subjects and citizens beyond their territorial limits, other than on the high seas, but they do not, as is commonly the case on the Continent, try foreigners for offences against their municipal laws.

In Macleod v. Atti/.-Gen., 1891, A. C. 455, Halsbury, L. C, laid down as English law that "all crime is local. The jurisdiction over the crime belongs to the country where the crime is committed, and, except over her own subjects, Her Majesty and the Imperial Legislature has no power whatever."

" It is, however, a decided and settled principle in the English and American law, that the penal laws of a country do not reach in their disabilities or penal effects, beyond the jurisdiction where they are established. Folliott v. Oyden, 1 H. Black. 123, 135; Lord Ellenborough, Woljfv. Oxholm, 6 M. & S. 99; Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Green, 17 Mass. 514, 539^543; ScovilU v. Canfield, 14 Johns. 338, 440" (1 Kent, Com. 88, note b). See also, V. S. v. Pelican Ins. Co., 1887, 127 U. S. 285, 289-91 and Hall, Int. Law, 218-222. —Ed.

 

[Mackaydon]

From my memory, the surf normally pounds the shoreline--this was NOT a calm seas Bahamas-type dive site. The original salvor (around 1900) used weighted shoes to maintain some control and their ordeal is well documented in (I believe) the NY Times. Also, the survivors' comments are archived, probably in the San Francisco and Sacramento newspapers. Somewhere, I still have my file and, if found, I'll be more specific.
The "X" on the chart is where I searched; north of the road and south of buildings that stood about 500 yards north of the road--on the beach. I MD-ed the beach and never had the nerve to venture into that surf. Then again, during the week I was in the area there could have been just a storm at sea creating the surf; but the story of the survivors also relates the severity of that surf and that was fresh in my mind.
Don.........

 

[Mackaydon]

You may wish to take a look at Google Earth for a pic of what is there today.

And as Jeff reported above ("In this case it appears that the Golden Gate was broken up; not a vestige of the vessel remained.") I agree 100%

 

[jeff k]

You may wish to take a look at Google Earth for a pic of what is there today.

And as Jeff reported above ("In this case it appears that the Golden Gate was broken up; not a vestige of the vessel remained.") I agree 100%

Type "Estrecho, Mexico" in Google Earth. It looks like there are some new homes on the beach.

 

[gus]

Don't have the dates but CEDAM Mexico tried to work the site many years ago (50's or early 60's) I saw some photos in the CEDAM museum in Puerto Aventuras years back. Main thing was the sand was very deep and they felt any cargo likely had migrated down deep.

 

[Mackaydon]

Manzanillo is just a few klicks to the south and there are a couple of vacation beaches between the city and "Gold Beach". It still would be a good place to MD for a few days while keeping watch on the surf at Gold Beach and awaiting an opportunity to MD the area.
Don....

 

[tsovil]

Jeff K & Mackaydon

Looks as though our map marked with the "X" was from back in 2008. I was curious as to how you decided that was "the" area. I live in Manzanillo. I've been here about 8 years. I run a dive shop. I've done a little metal detecting in the past. I can offer an "Underwater Treasure Hunter" PADI certification. But I haven't been actively searching for some time. But I've been curious about the S.S. Golden Gate since I got here. I've read a lot of material. I've been out to that stretch of Playa de Oro but never to search for the wreck. My curiosity is more along the lines of "where did it beach" and then fall into a debris field as it was beaten up the surf, storms etc. I know there were bodies that were buried there. I've never read about what might have happened to them. Anyway, curious as to why you selected that area.

I have a book called "THE INNKEEPER" that was written by Bart Varelmann. I've never met him but bought his book locally. I did contact him for permission to use some of his photos in an article I did about a boat that burned in Manzanillo Bay and he was there with a camera. I also have a book that was published locally called "Historia y Futuro del Desarrollo Turistico y Portuario de Litoral en Manzanillo. This was written with contributions from the Manzanillo Port, the Colima State Government and the University of Colima. The first half (more photos) is in Spanish but there is an English translation at the rear.

Bart Varelmann's book is interesting. He came to Manzanillo as a SCUBA diver. He found out about the wreck when he was here. When he returned to the USA in Miami he spent time at the University and read all he could find about the Golden Gate. He had selected some areas to look at from the sea in 1961 and so he started to walk those areas from the beach. He was frustrated but on March 22, 1966, as he was looking at the breaking waves he saw what looked like a pole come up out of the water. He watched and there it was again. About 50 yards from shore. He swam out to it and determined it was a spoke from one of the paddle wheels. He marked the area on shore and contacted a man named Fred Collins. They talked and Fred offered Bart 5% of the net profit if he could pinpoint the wreck and they found something. Two years later, 1968, he sent money for a permit for him and his crew and they would split 50/50 with the Mexican government. A month after that Fred arrived with equipment and 3 other guys. They stayed out on the site with observers from the Mexican Army there to monitor their work. After three months of work Fred said the would "know tomorrow" if they found gold. They had found a vault. Bart describes that they had constructed wave-breaking ramps from planks lashed to floating barrels and anchored with chains just beyond the breakers. Fred completed his arrangements with the government and the night before he left he presented Bart with "a heavy canvas bag".

The other book, the very well done history of Manzanillo, the port, tourism etc. has a 3-page spread on the wreck. Most of what is there is about the wreck, the burning, the ship and various attempts to find gold. They mention Bart but never really say he got gold. However, they do say that in November, 1985, 15 foreign professional divers came and made an attempt at salvaging treasure "amid great mystery and silence" with the Mexican Naval Ministry. In May 1986 only 3 divers remained. One, Michel Leclaire, a nationalized US citizen, abandoned the mission. He had also been making a film. I read somewhere that they were trying to construct a breakwall of some kind. This books says that when he got to Mexico City he and his wife took a taxi. She got out to shop and he was going someplace else but was shot 3 times. They questioned the cab driver and he had $18,000,000.00 pesos in his possession (roughly $2,000,000.00 today). The cab driver was not arrested and the case was never solved.

I think that is the most recent attempt I've read about. Both of these books are still available but in limited supply for Bart's book. It was self published. The other book is available too if you search for it.

So, I don't know if I've added anything to the discussion but, again, I'd like to know what made you choose that spot. Part of my interest is that I was contacted by a bottle collector from San Francisco. He has a very old bottle that is embossed with "Golden Gate". He can not find the origin of the bottle but in his research he found that the S.S. Golden Gate did make their own soda wa
ter. He was hoping I might be able to find a similar bottle here that might help point to the wreck. So I'd be curious to know where it beached, burned to the water line and then became a debris field. Would make me feel good.

 

[tsovil]

Type "Estrecho, Mexico" , Jeff, I arrived in Manzanillo in 2009. I visited that section of beach with a friend writing an article about it the beach. Those homes were there and abandoned. I'm trying to figure out when they were built and when/why they were abandoned. Maybe they were never occupied?

 

[Mackaydon]

tsovil,
Welcome to Treasurenet !!

Twenty years have now passed since I began my research on the GG; and nearly that long ago since I first walked that beach-- and inland looking for artifacts.
From my recollection; and to answer your Q. inquiring about where did it beach, burn to the water line and then became a debris field. my response is: The GG never 'beached'(like running up on the shore); it ran aground 300 yards offshore in very heavy surf and burned until the vessel was in two parts, stern and bow. Those parts then drifted ashore the next morning. I have no doubt that whatever parts of the vessel made it to the shoreline were quickly consumed by the surf and 'very loose' (and deep) sand. I would not expect to find any 'debris field'.
As to why do I think the event happened in a certain location, my memory tells me my sources were twofold: The testimony of the survivors as to their relative position near (as they walked to) "White Rock" (bird poop) and the distance and time they had traveled before reaching 'White Rock'. The second source was the account in the NY Times regarding a salvors story of retrieving gold ingots and his difficulty in maintaining his balance in the surf; made only slightly easier since he wore weighted boots.
Don........

 

[Mackaydon]

Hard to forget this image; even shows the passengers on the deck (and bowsprit):

Don.... (Credit: Currier and Ives)

 

[jeff of pa]

New-York tribune. (New York [N.Y.]), 29 March 1908.



https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...&proxValue=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=551

 

[jeff of pa]

The San Francisco call. (San Francisco [Calif.]), 23 Nov. 1902.





https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...&proxValue=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=701

 

[Darren in NC]

Great book with a terrible ending! There seems to be no general knowledge that this steamer was completely salvaged in 2003. There are many posts and articles online in the past 15 years, stating that there is more to be recovered. But CEDAM contracted an outfit in 2003, and dove with them to recover more than 30 million USD in gold. The recovery effort is fascinating to read, but the ending was very anti-climatic.

*SPOILER ALERT*
Don't read this if you want to read the book and it's ending for yourself.
The book mentions the past recovery efforts on the Wells Fargo gold. This is what everyone is still searching for...the the leftovers of that shipment that was not recovered in the 1800s. However, a descendant of the purser says there was unknowingly more in the purser's safe than what was in the known Wells Fargo shipment. So there is a long buildup to finding the purser's massive safe in the treacherous waters, only to end with it being hauled off to a military base. It was later taken to Mexico City, and there are no details given as to what was actually in the safe when opened. It simply says it was opened and worth more than 30 million USD. It's thrilling to see the story of the safe turns out to be true, but the opening of the safe is only left to the imagination and the book ends abruptly.

NOTE: I am posting this on another thread here on Tnet, as both of these turn up on Google results when searching for the info on this vessel.