Seattle Times artical on Central America.

[lukdiver]

Searched the board and don't think anyone has posted this article on the Central America. It's written in connection with a local set of investors and they provided the side-scan. Their return was 30 years coming and w-a-y short of the salvage agreement percentage. Not surprisingly. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/the-ss-central-america-ship-of-gold-and-lost-lives/

 

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[Kray Gelder]

Interesting to read about the real complications involved with treasure hunting and recovery, and then trying to actually keep and spend the booty.

 

[No gold in NY]

I'm sorry, the Seattle Times isn't going to let me view it because I use an ad blocker.

 

[capt dom]

There is another part of this story that has yet to be told.... Its called the actual truth
Nobody really has followed the money... the real trail of all the money and documented where and to who it actually went...
Those 500 coins are only 500 ounces! Divide by 12 for troy pounds and one gets 41 pounds...

People have been bullcrapping about tons and tons of gold even stating the second recovery was supervised by a Court Receiver....
Now where did all that money go

 

[xaos]

This article is a bit off from the actual facts.

Investors raised $12 Million. Thompson invented, designed, and built an ROV capable of the recovery at that depth. A ship was also purchased for the recovery, and outfitted to do the work.Then there was the recovery operation.
One can easily see how this operation far exceeded $12 million.
During this time, Thompson borrowed money from 2 banks.
It should be noted that some of the operators were paid along the way, noting that the recovery crew was paid about 50%.
When CGMG paid the $50 million, it wasnt lost, it paid off the bank loans.

While this sheds light on some of the original research and players involved, there is more to this story. From the recent recovery, CGMG paid $30 million for it, and investors have been paid from that.

The only thing missing with Thompson is the 500 ounces of gold (even according to Evans, the curator and lead scientist on both of the recoverys).

A much wider and much more comprehensive search of that area should be done, as there is quite a bit on the bottom unaccounted for.

 

[Salvor6]

Xaos Thompson did not purchase the vessel. That alone would take all his money. He leased it.

 

[xaos]

Xaos Thompson did not purchase the vessel. That alone would take all his money. He leased it.

ummmm...Sorry Salvor6, but in 1988 Columbus-America purchased an old Canadian icebreaker, the Arctic Ranger, and renamed it the Arctic Discoverer, which was retrofitted for the final search and recovery.

It was found abandoned in Florida, and U.S. Marshals auctioned it off on May 11, 2013 and sold it for $50,000. Parts of it are up on ebay, figured most of you Florida boyz would own a piece of this adventure!

People (and the investors) seem to forget that Thompson had to fight all the way to the Supreme Court to get awarded the 92% that he did get, legal fees alone were several $Million. That fight benefited recovery efforts as a precedent.

Out of all of this, investing a mere $12 million. I would not expect to share too much with them either, there just was not anything left to share. Bank loan itself was a little over $50 million, so getting their 10% was all they should have gotten.

Some nice pictures of NEMO here as well:
http://www.wncrocks.com/ARCTIC DISCOVERER HISTORY.html

 

[diverlynn]

I believe it sat up knowing Green Cove Springs for years

 

[Red_desert]

Glad to see you are still around lukdiver, how have things been going?​

 

[lukdiver]

I believe it sat up knowing Green Cove Springs for years

Very good, retired and moved from CA so getting back to that wreck you doused 'challenging'. I'll PM you, much to talk about. Man I love gold. Only problem of picking up gold is you want to pick it up again. Hope you're well. Bob

 

[Red_desert]

Oh, you moved from California to where? I got your PM, I'll have to go over it better later. I think that photo you emailed me once, of your brother holding the gold coin... got lost in my older computer when it crashed. I finally got the device ordered today, hope it really helps my Internet now.

 

[Red_desert]

"Man I love gold. Only problem of picking up gold is you want to pick it up again."

Ok, I see that it was mentiooned where you moved to, good luck on your site. I'm on Social Security now, started recently and had to take it early. Interesting, someone else told me they had checked into boats a little while back, out where you are at now. Obviously they didn't get a boat, but now it makes me wonder what info was causing the sudden interest in salvage operations. This is somebody with no ship experience that I know of, other than diving lessons. My lips are sealed, as it has been said. "loose lips sink ships".​

 

[agflit]

It's still in Green Cove Springs....they have been working on removing the hazardous materials ( asbestos) from the ship prior to scrapping...been driving by it everyday on the way to work for a year...

agflit