S.S. CENTRAL AMERICA RECOVERY SHIP PHOTOGRAPHED

This is only tangentially related to numismatics, but there's a haunting set of photos in this Daily Mail article of the current state of the ship used to recover the first haul of gold coins and other treasure and artifacts from the wreck of the S.S. Central America.

Like most popular press articles, it mangles several facts, particularly those of the subsequent Tommy Thompson matter. Thompson was the head of the venture who later became a fugitive. -Editor

E-Sylum reader Bob Evans worked with Thompson to locate and salvage the original find, and later went back with the company to extract a second haul a couple years ago. He writes:

The text accompanying the article is full of misinformation and partial truths, which could be misleading. First of all, once again debunking an old "fact" that keeps coming back up, the gold coins Thompson admits he took are $50 commemorative restrikes made from gold extracted from large Kellogg & Humbert ingots, not original treasure as recovered. The general public reads about misdeeds involving "gold coins" and imagines all sorts of swashbuckling piracy. Sophisticated numismatists, such as E-Sylum readers, will know the difference.

Tommy Thompson was never the "Captain." He was not Jack Sparrow. We had a professional ship captain with a Master's license, and a crew of professional merchant mariners and ship engineers.

There is no mention in the article that the company was reborn under the current receivership, and that the shipwreck was explored and salvaged successfully once again in 2014.

There are other bits and pieces of misleading information. These "journalists" always seem to draw from previously misinformed articles, and so on and so forth, ad infinitum.

Looking at the photos reminds me of the march of time and entropy, and that the treasure is the one true superlative in the story.