The Ship of Gold: Interview with Rick Tomaska and Dwight Manley
The sidewheel steamer, SS Central America, commonly referred to as the “Ship of Gold,” has gained a reputation as the most significant shipwreck to occur in United States history. The vessel was known primarily for its crucial role in transporting prospectors and thousands of pounds of California gold to and from the West Coast during the California Gold Rush. The SS Central America was an integral part of expanding our nation’s wealth in the 1850s. Due to the California Gold Rush, unprecedented amounts of this gold needed to be shipped across the country to the East Coast. These massive amounts of California gold came in various forms, including gold dust, gold bars, and gold coins.
The safest and most efficient route for this gold to travel on was by sea. Thousands of pounds of gold would be loaded onto ships in San Francisco and transported to the West Coast of Panama. Upon arrival, the California gold would be loaded onto trains and shipped to the East Coast of Panama, where the SS Central America would be waiting. Once boarded onto the SS Central America, this California gold would be sent on the last leg of its journey to New York.
Unfortunately, on September 3, 1857, the SS Central America set sail on its final voyage as it left the Panamanian Port of Colon for New York with 30,000 pounds of gold and countless rare coins in its cargo. By September 9, 1857, the SS Central America was caught in a devastating category 2 hurricane. Three days later, on September 12, this prestigious ship met its untimely demise as it sank to the Atlantic Ocean floor 200 miles off the coast of the Carolinas. For over 130 years, the SS Central America and its precious gold cargo were thought to be lost for eternity.
Recently, Rare Collectibles TV’s host, Rick Tomaska, sat down with Dwight Manley, whose dedication to the facilitation of gold treasure from the SS Central America shipwreck has turned him into an expert on the ship, its ties to the California Gold Rush, its final journey, and its discovery.
When Rick asked how the SS Central America was discovered in the thousands of miles of ocean between Panama and New York, Dwight explained, “The side-scan sonar of the ship picked up on an image that looked like a paddle wheel. When the scientists saw that, they knew they had a steamship. Of course, they didn’t know it was the SS Central America at that point. So, they went down and saw the iconic bell from Morgan Iron Works that was last ringing on September 12, 1857, the final day of the SS Central America.”
Locating the bell was instrumental in finding the wreckage of the SS Central America, without this bell, there was no proof that this was the ship lost in 1857. Manley elaborated on the significance, “I have a personal opinion that the bell is of such importance that it should be at the US Naval Academy where the Herndon Memorial is oiled up for all graduates to try and scale upon graduation. Since William Lewis Herndon was the Captain of the SS Central America, I believe it belongs there, and I’m working on having an exhibit put in at the Naval Academy. This is something that is Smithsonian worthy, but the Naval Academy has such a special connection to Captain Herndon that it seems like the perfect home for the bell.”
Captain Herndon was a marvelous leader, known for his exploration of the Amazon, which he chartered with his crew. Even with this world-renowned captain behind the wheel of the SS Central America, however, the ship was still unable to weather the storm. “Eventually, after 48 hours of the hurricane and its intense winds and massive waves, the ship had been crippled. A team was made to bail the water out, they tried everything they could to get the coal dry to restart the steam engines, but nothing worked. Not even a distinguished captain like Herndon can change that.”
It wasn’t until over 130 years after the SS Central America had sunk that the Columbus America Discovery Group had located it in 1988. There were some complications in terms of competition, Dwight pointed out, “While the Columbus-America Discovery Group was searching, there was another ship from a major university doing the same thing, trying to beat them to the punch. There were standoffs at sea. It was truly like the Wild West. Both of these groups knew that this was the holy grail that they were looking for. And the Columbus-America Discovery group prevailed. They discovered the paddlewheel and bell, went down to the wreckage and grabbed a piece of coal. They placed it in a jar and a propeller plane came by to fly it to the federal courthouse in Norfolk. After that, the site was registered to and controlled by the Columbus America Discovery Group.”
Recovering all of the gold treasure aboard the SS Central America took multiple dives and numerous expeditions that spanned decades. As Dwight put it, “In the mid-1980s, they started the search, and by the late 1980s, they had found the ship. It took four seasons of recovery missions of going down and getting bits at a time, which lasted through 1990. During this span, there were recovery seasons, and there were hurricane seasons where the danger was too great to recover anything, so it took a few years between those seasons.”
Dwight continued, “The second expedition took place in 2014 when another crew went back and found something that they didn’t know was there before, the purser’s safe. Inside was a nearly full bag of silver dimes, and small bags of quarters and half dollars. The dimes were used to pay the crew, 10 cents a day for their labor. And there were original leather bags full of small leather pouches sewn shut. These bags had gold dust and ore right from the streams and hills of California that hadn’t yet been made into ingots or coins.”
Recently, Rare Collectibles TV was able to acquire a limited amount of this gold dust from the purser’s safe of the SS Central America in the form of gold pinches. When asked to explain the history of the gold pinch, Dwight responded, “In the days of the California Gold Rush there was great shortage of coinage. The San Francisco Mint didn’t start until 1854, and there were no banks. So gold dust was the most common wealth source, so when you went into a business and went to the bar keeper, he would take a pinch of gold for a shot of whiskey, and if you wanted a double shot, it was a double pinch. That’s the genesis for the term gold pinch. And this gold dust you have was touched by a gold miner in 1857, went to the SS Central America, went down with the ship, was recovered by Bob Evans and personally put in the holders and brought right to you. It’s an unbroken pedigree from 1857.”
Rick inquired further on the pedigree of the SS Central America and its gold, Dwight replied, “compared to other historic discoveries like King Tut’s tomb where nothing can be owned privately because the Egyptian government owns it, the United States allows private ownership of this gold from the SS Central America. This California Gold Rush gold is not just in a museum where you have to look through glass. This can be in your house.”
