Ship of gold in the deep blue sea

Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea tells the parallel stories of the SS Central America, a steamer carrying nearly six hundred passengers and twenty-one tons of California gold that sank in a hurricane in September 1857—the worst peacetime disaster at sea in American history—and Tommy Thompson, a young engineer from Ohio who in the 1980s led the first successful deep-sea salvage operation to recover the shipwreck's treasure from eight thousand feet below the surface.

The book combines historical narrative with accounts of Thompson's scientific ingenuity and his battles against naysayers, harsh ocean conditions, and rival treasure hunters.