by Gary Kinder
|
| List Price: | $15.95 |
| Amazon Price: | $10.85 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
| You Save: | $5.10 (32%) |
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $4.95 |
| Availablitiy: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
 |
|
Product Description
"White knuckle reading...with generous portions of adventure, intrigue, heroism, and high technology interwoven."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review
This enthralling true story of maritime tragedy and visionary science begins with a disaster to rival the sinking of the Titanic.
In September 1857, the S.S. Central America, a side-wheel steamer carrying passengers returning from the gold fields of California, went down during a hurricane off the Carolina coast. More than 400 men--and 21 tons of gold--were lost. In the 1980s, a maverick engineer named Tommy Thompson set out to find the wreck and salvage its treasure from the ocean floor.
With knuckle-biting suspense, Gary Kinder reconstructs the terror of the Central America's last days, when passengers bailed freezing water from the hold, then chopped the ship's timbers to use as impromptu liferafts. He goes on to chronicle Thompson's epic quest for the lost vessel, an endeavor that drew on the latest strides in oceanography, information theory, and underwater robotics, and that pitted Thompson against hair-raising weather, bloodthirsty sharks, and unscrupulous rivals.
Ship of Gold is a magnificent adventure, filled with heroism, ingenuity, and perseverance.
Amazon.com Review
The full horror as the mighty Central American, a ship carrying almost 600 people and a wealth of gold, sank in a "perfect hurricane" in 1857 is brilliantly re-created in the audio version of Ship of Gold. Gary Kinder's book cries out for audio interpretation due to its abundance of dramatic descriptions from that hellish night. "The hoarse screams of 500 men rose as she began a slow watery spin--the water turning faster and faster and faster until the swirling vortex sucked the men into a suffocating darkness with the once majestic steamer." Bruce Davison delivers Kinder's rich, descriptive narrative with appropriate drama and flair. It is truly a delight to hear this incredible story read out loud. The chilling testimonies of passengers and crew are also convincingly re-enacted by Davison, who assumes the voices of frightened young women, exhausted crew men, and the steadfast voice of the brave Captain Herndon as he fights to keep his ship afloat. Davison is rather soft spoken, which makes for a pleasant listening experience, especially because the tapes run for five hours. It really is impossible not to become fully engrossed in this fascinating story of a ship's demise, and the subsequent operation to recover her treasure some 130 years later. (Running time: five hours, four cassettes) --Naomi Gesinger
Customers who bought this item also bought
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Historic gold and modern drama, 2008-07-26
On September 9, 1857, the sidewheel steamer "Central America", which was carrying passengers from the Panamanian port of Colón to New York, encountered hurricane winds and savage seas off the coast of the Carolinas. Although a sturdy ship, her sails were quickly shredded and a leak in one of the seals around the paddle wheels prevented her boiler from functioning. Captain William Herndon exhausted every means to save the stricken ship and its passengers, many of whom were on their way home from the California gold fields: when the pumps failed, the crew and male passengers formed a bucket brigade to combat the rising water in the hold. They lost the battle on the evening of September 11, when the "Central America" sank beneath the waves, taking her captain and 425 of her passengers and crew with her.
Over the years, the ship became a Holy Grail for treasure hunters, because 21 tons of gold went to the bottom with her. But because she was over two miles below the ocean's surface, recovery seemed impossible- until renegade marine scientist and explorer Tommy Thompson, leader of the Columbus-America Discovery Group, developed the technology to enable deep water exploration and artefact gathering. In 1989, he obtained access to the wreck of the "Central America" and collected gold coins and bars with an estimated value of one billion dollars.
Author Gary Kinder has done a great job weaving together two struggles that occurred centuries apart: that of the "Central America" passengers and crew to survive, and Thompson's battle against the scientific and technological odds to salvage the wreck. I was especially fascinated by the legal process via which American discoverers obtain salvage rights to sunken vessels: after collecting an artefact from the "Central America", Thompson's team took it to the Norfolk, VA courthouse so that the U.S. marshal could "arrest" it and a judge could award the site to them. Thirty-nine insurance companies traced their lineage back to those 1857 insurers that had covered the valuable contents and paid for the loss, and they now claimed, 132 years later, that the treasure belonged to them. A third struggle then commences, this one in the courts.
My only complaint is that there were so few pictures accompanying the text. But I still award "Ship of Gold" a five star review because Gary Kinder's prose has made a word worth a thousand pictures.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
A Great Book and an Important Story, 2008-06-28
It took Kinder ten years to write this book--and it shows. A really marvelous tale, brilliantly written, about an incredibly interesting character: Tommy Thompson. It's great to know that frontiers still exist and that real exploration continues--not just on Mars, but in the depths of the sea. This is one of those rare books that I was unable to put down once I began.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Not a single photograph!, 2008-05-05
Ship of Gold is a well written account of the sinking of the Central America as well as of the search for its remains some 130 years later. It's full of details, sometimes too many. I enjoyed this book but felt really ripped off that there wasn't a single photo in the entire 500 page book. Pictures make a story come alive and I found myself reading along and then wanting to look at a picture or two but there was nothing. I don't know why they didn't include any pics but they were sorely missed.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A Real Life Indiana Jones Saga Of Sunken Treasure, 2008-03-10
This book seamlessly blends three stories. Two are adventure related with one begatting the other, that is the story of the sinking of the S.S. Central America, creating great panic due to about half of the U.S.A.'s gold being lost in addition to the death of over 400 passengers, and the subsequent story of how it was found and reclaimed some 130 years later. The other, the third story if you will, is a bio of what I am inclined to call an important yet still virtually unkownn American scientist, Tommy Thompson. I guess if Titanic fever helped in some ways, making Bob Ballard a household name, it somewhat obscurred Tommy Thompson. That fact adds to the mystique Ship Of Gold so wonderfully reveals.
Yes, this has quite a bit to reward the reader with. I was fascinated by the amount first hand documented information availabe. On the day prior to and the day of the sinking we get an almost hour by hour account, so vivid it actually puts the reader in the midst of the unfolding tragedy, during which most women and children were evacuated and the men valiantly bailed in the real hope that their lives as well as the boat could be saved. When the boat did begin to sink the last thing those in the water remember was the renowned Captain Herndon going down with the ship. The imagery conveyed is jaw-dropping. At the time the sinking put the young country in an economic depression due to the tremendous financial loss of the nation's gold, but due to the Civil War it was forgotten in the passing years.
Mr. Kinder has woven the bio of a youngster named Tommy Thompson into the telling of the sinking by going back and forth using chapters as dividers. Just as a series of unknown random events created the conditions to sink a ship so they did to spark a young boy's fertile mind. Tommy Thompson was not just brilliantly inquisitive..He was imaginatively inventive. A bit of a theorist, like Einstein, and a lot of an inventor, like Edison. By the time we get to the adult Tommy Thompson we're still not sure if he's kind of a mad scientist version of Jimmy Buffett, or if he's a "once-in-millenium" brilliant intellectual that happens to be entertaining as hell. Either way destiny will bring the right person on a collision course with the S.S. Central America.
The third part of the story is that intersection. Against all odds, Tommy Thompson was about to make history. Even though he fooled the casual on-looker, Tommy Thompson was a disciplined scientist first before being an adventure seeker. He methodically knew there were steps that had to be taken, including the extremely speculative possibility of finding the S.S. Central America. However, even if that could be done he was still going to have to extend technology to do things that were not considered doable yet. None of this stopped him and this book vividly, with lots of comic relief, tells of this impossible journey resulting in the truly amazing outcome when he triumphed.
This true story can not be equaled by fiction. It should, and I understand, may be turned into a movie. Until then I recommend this book to any armchair adventurer and history buff. It's a first rate true yarn that is entertaining and scientifically significant too.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Engaging true treasure hunt story. Amazing., 2007-11-16
I read a copy I had borrowed from the library and was so fascinated with the story I had to purchase a copy for my library. This is better than a fiction story because the obstacles and challenges are such that you couldn't have made them up. It is a marvelous personal account of the salvage of the treasure of the SS Central America that sunk in 1857. 400 lives were lost in that. Kinder does a good job of reconstructing the last moments of the ship before it goes down in a terrible storm with 21 tons of gold. The salvage effort takes place below 8000 feet of sea water! Kinder himself is quite a character of interest.
Price is accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of this product.