Marjorie H. reviewed on 4/20/2006 + 286 more book reviews

In September 1857, the SS Central America, a side-wheel steamer carrying nearly six hundred passengers returning from the California Gold Rush, foundered in a hurricane and sank two hundred miles off the Carolina coast. Over four hundred lives and twenty-one tons of California gold were lost. It was the worse peacetime disaster at sea in American history, a tragedy that remained lost in legend for over a century.
Ship of Gold begins with a copiously researched historical record of the disaster, rendered in chilling detail with testimony from survivors and eyewitnesses. The book then becomes a fascinating account of the efforts of Tommy Thompson, the young visionary engineer who explodes boundaries of various disciplines--oceanography, computer science, information theory, and advanced robotics to establish a working presence in the deep ocean.

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