Tommy Thompson, an engineer who found the legendary SS Central America wreckage, was released from jail after spending almost 10 years in custody. He has been detained since 2015 for violating civil law by not disclosing the location of the 500 gold coins he found in the wreck from the 1857 “Ship of Gold. ” A federal court has recently ruled that Thompson’s detention has lost its ability to compel him to cooperate with law enforcement; therefore, they ruled that Thompson should be released.
The treasure, which is estimated to be worth in excess of 2.5 million dollars, still exists, and Thompson continues to claim that he does not know where he buried the gold coins. His release signals the end of one of the longest legal disputes surrounding maritime gold history in the world.
The 1857 Disaster: Origins of the ‘Ship of Gold’
The SS Central America was constructed as a sidewheel steamer with a length of 280 feet and is considered part of California’s Gold Rush era.
After leaving Panama for New York in September 1857, the SS Central America was loaded with 30,000 pounds of gold, in addition to over 600 passengers, when it was hit by a Category 2 hurricane off South Carolina.
According to Daily Galaxy, because of this disaster, 425 passengers lost their lives, as did the gold. This loss was also so significant that it was one of several events leading up to the Panic of 1857, which was one of the first worldwide economic downturns.
The discovery of the ‘Nemo’ robot
In 1988, Tommy Thompson, from Ohio, became an ocean engineer who accomplished what many believed could never happen. Working with a research team using a high-tech remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named Nemo, he located the wreck of the SS Central America at approximately 8,000 feet deep in the Atlantic Ocean.
In an amazing recovery effort, he was able to recover thousands of gold bars and coins, including the extremely rare 1857-S Coronet dollar and 20-dollar double eagles. At the time of the recovery, the value of the coins retrieved was estimated at between 100 million dollars and 150 million dollars, and thus began a 20-plus-year legal battle with the 161 investors who funded the expedition.
A decade in shadows
When investors claimed they hadn’t received any returns on their investment of 50 million dollars in the sale of gold from the find and sued Tommy Thompson in 2005, the celebration of the find turned to scandal. By 2012, Tommy Thompson was a fugitive living in a hotel in Florida under an assumed name. He was captured in 2015 by U.S. Marshals. The heart of Thompson’s legal troubles was his refusal to reveal the location of 500 gold coins, which he claimed were held in trust in Belize.
