The S.S. Central America, Tommy Thompson and that contempt of court citation. 1 1

[Henri Charriere]

The first time I ever heard of the ship and its sinking was in an ordinary article buried in a copy of Reader's Digest.  I remember thinking it was very special and wondering how come I had never heard of it before. I believe the writer was purposely vague as to its location which was understandable.  A great read. I put it right up there with the exploits of Shackleton at the South Pole.  As technology evolves, more and more wrecks previously deemed inaccessible will be explored and their bounties recovered.

[USAuPzlBxBob]

On 3/1/2024 at 1:38 PM, zadok said:

...AU55....

There were 3 stickers on the jacket, the front one shown, and two on the back.  With a portable room-radiator, was able to get all the stickers off without any residue remaining, and the book is very respectable for condition.  No writing on the pages, not one single dog-eared page.

I couldn't think of anything to include with my order, so paid for shipping.  The $3.00 sticker had nothing to do with the price.  There was a small removable sticker on the back showing $19.99, and a larger sticker covering the ISBN.

Book (new) lists for $27.50 on the inside of the jacket.  (manufacturer suggested retail price)

$8.60 book, $6.99 S&H, $1.03 sales tax = $16.62 delivered to my door, and with emails telling me it had been delivered.

[Henri Charriere]

And to think when the Reviewers' copies came into the Strand Book Store way back then, they were routinely bought at 1/4 the cover price, sold at half price and later "Remaindered" at a dollar a copy + tax!  Years later, as a "Used Book," the price rose and if now "Out of Print," the price, depending on demand (and inflation) could very well exceed, double or even triple the original cover price. You did very well! (Madonna's book, ---, never made it to the selling floor. Copies were sold at $100. each upstairs in the Rare Book Room.)

[Mike Meenderink]

That one has been found...what about this one? It's still lost to the depths.........

The Merchant Royal first set sail in 1627 and from 1637 to 1640 the ship traded with the Spanish colonies in the West Indies. In 1641, the Merchant Royal was docked in Cadiz on her way home to London but was leaking after her long voyage in the West Indies. Despite this Captain, Limbrey heard of a Spanish ship that had caught fire and was unable to deliver treasure to pay 30,000 Spanish soldiers in Flanders. He decided that he could make himself and his men extra money by taking the treasure to Antwerp on the way home to London.

However, the Merchant Royal continued to leak and never made it to Antwerp and on September 23^rd, 1641 it sank off Land’s End. The ship took 18 men with it to the depths while Captain Limbrey and 40 men survived in boats and were picked up by the Merchant Royal’s sister ship the Dover Merchant. All of the treasure on board the ship that was meant to be turned into cash to pay 30,000 soldiers were lost. Onboard the ship was 100,000 pounds of gold, 400 bars of Mexican silver, and 500,000 pieces of eight and various other coins.

The bounty aboard the Merchant Royal makes it one of the most valuable shipwrecks in history with an estimated value of over $1.5 billion. The value of the wreck has made it highly sought after and the Odyssey Marine Exploration company has spent years trying to find the ship. In 2007 it was rumored the Merchant Royal had been found but the ship was later believed to be the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes. A 2009 Discovery Channel special focused on the company’s efforts to find the ship with no success.

[USAuPzlBxBob]

Yes, the SS Central America did hoist its American flag upside-down as a signal of distress.

It was done on Saturday morning, September 12, 1857.  In fact two American flags were simultaneously hoisted upside-down at one point.

A two-masted brig, the Marine (Captain Hiram Burt) spied the upside-down distress flags of the SS Central America after Captain Herndon had signal guns fired to get the attention of the Marine, and the flash of the muzzles caught Captain Burt's eye as the other side of the hurricane had darkened the skies again.

[Henri Charriere]

@USAuPzlBxBob :   I do not believe I would have had the presence of mind to think about formalities on a sinking ship.  Then again, there was no question in Captain Smith's mind that he would go down with his ship... the Royal Mail Ship, Titanic, on of all things a ship's maiden voyage and what was to be the last ship the captain intended to helm before retiring.  It's interesting that that flag detail made an impression on you.  Thanks for the update!

[Henri Charriere]

On 3/3/2024 at 11:47 AM, Mike Meenderink said:

That one has been found...what about this one? It's still lost to the depths.........

.... The bounty aboard the Merchant Royal makes it one of the most valuable shipwrecks in history with an estimated value of over $1.5 billion....

[For the sake of argument, if I were to locate the wreck, what should I reasonably expect your cut to be?  I ask because I am told you have the power to bump threads.  I wouldn't want to get on your bad side.]          

[USAuPzlBxBob]

Tommy Thompson is still in Federal lockup.

From the Ocean and Coastal Law Journal (January 2016), an article written by Chris Ryan (lawyer) begins by citing a translation of the opening of Richard Wagner's famous opera, Das Rheingold:

No joy shall please
Him who it holds;
Upon no favourite of fortune shall shine
Its brilliant light;
Who it doth own
Let care devour,
And who has it not,
Let envy gnaw!
All shall strive

For what it brings,
Yet none joy shall reap
Though it is used.

Chris Ryan then paraphrases the meaning of the opening:

Legend is, were someone to claim the gold for himself and forge a ring of it, it would grant him immeasurable power over the world.  Such a power, though, would come at a price — he must forever forswear love, and be cursed to a life devoid of fulfillment.

And Ryan then goes on to compare Tommy Thompson's demise to Wagner's opening sentiment.

[Henri Charriere]

On 3/8/2024 at 1:22 PM, USAuPzlBxBob said:

Tommy Thompson is still in Federal lockup....

As regarding the above assertion, I have never been able to verify or refute the claim. There is no record of a Tommy (or Thomas) Gregory Thompson having been in the custody of Federal prison officials before or after the ship was found in 1988, nearly 35 years ago.

There are more convolutions in his legal odyssey than there are of my brain. He will be 72 next month and has appeared in court at least 19 times in the past 7-1/2 years. There is no comparable precedent for this seeming interminable predicament. 

This much we do know: in April 2015, he pled guilty for failure to appear on an earlier case -- it took U.S. Marshals two years to locate him, and was "sentenced" provisionally to two years in jail and a fine of $250,000.  However, the plea bargain he agreed to included a requirement for Thompson to answer the questions about the whereabouts of 500 gold coins worth $2.5 million which he has adamantly refused to do claiming short-term memory loss. In the eyes of the judicial system, he broke the plea agreement and has yet to serve a single day in prison. He has been jailed as a detainee indefinitely on charges of contempt of court until he cooperates. In essence, were he to comply, it would be in the court's discretion as to whether his sentencing, the long deferred two years hanging over his head, would go forward and be enforced.  In the meantime, he is being kept in custody as a detainee -- not a sentenced prisoner -- and has been for 7 years and has amassed fines totaling some $27 million dollars, and counting.

In my initial posts, I made references to a large coffee table-sized book containing photos of the ship's bounty, its remarkable recovery (for which Thompson did not possess the necessary license resulting in lawsuits filed by 91 insurance entities)  conservation and formal preparation for subsequent sales. If you enjoyed Kinder's "Ship of Gold," you will absolutely love Thompson's "America's Lost Treasure" (1998) and its superb color photos, if you can locate a copy.  I appreciate the quote from an opera by Wagner.  

Posted at the discretion of Moderation.

[USAuPzlBxBob]

Wikipedia:  Tommy Thompson was born April 15, 1952, so currently he is 71 years old.

From an article from The Guardian December 15, 2020:
 

In late October of this year [2020], Thompson appeared by video for his latest hearing.

“Mr. Thompson, are you ready to answer the seminal question in this case as to the whereabouts of the gold?” Marbley said.

“Your honor, I don’t know if we’ve gone over this road before or not, but I don’t know the whereabouts of the gold,” Thompson responded. “I feel like I don’t have the keys to my freedom.”

And with that, Thompson settled back into his current situation: housed in a federal prison in Milan, Michigan, where he’s now spent more than 1,700 days in jail and owes nearly $1.8m in fines – and counting. Thompson’s attorney declined to comment.

Thompson, 68, has said he suffers from a rare form of chronic fatigue syndrome that has created problems with short-term memory. He’s previously said, without providing details, that the coins were turned over to a trust in Belize.

The 68 years of age (October 2020) and 71 years of age (today, March 9, 2024) align correctly.
(Just making sure because there is displayed immediately following the link on Wikipedia:  Retrieved June 6, 2023.)

[Henri Charriere]

I am sorry I put you through all the trouble of fact-checking this.  Everything you've written is correct.  I, too, saw the reference to FCI, Milan MI, but the official website of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, has never listed Thompson on it. True, the BOP accommodates both pre-trial detainees and sentenced inmates but a diligent search fails to disclose Thompson's present whereabouts. Jeffrey Epstein, a pre-trial detainee, died in custody, but his name remains on the record for historical purposes. The entire world knew El Chapo was being held in the MDC in Brooklyn, but his whereabouts were not disclosed until after he was sentenced and transferred to ADX-Florence, CO. After the first WTC bombers were convicted, they were flown immediately by helicopter to USP-Lewisburg, PA., until they were brought back to the city, sentenced, and interred at the supermax. When Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano decided to cooperate with Federal officials, his name and Reg. No. were removed from the records as are the names of all inmates in the WITSEC program.

Thompson's quandary is almost unique, but nothing I have written or you have read should deter you from obtaining a copy of his book, "America's Lost Treasure," and "hearing" his story as recounted by him. The full-color photos accompanying the text are breathtakingly beautiful.

[USAuPzlBxBob]

My next step will be to relook at one of the YouTubes I posted above and then compare the scene to a very descriptive chapter in Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea.

My suspicion is that Gary Kinder had the clip to view (pre-YouTube) to describe the scene in the book so precisely.  Also it will enable me to place a face with each person's name.

Other than that, I'd like to read again about the search sonar track lines that they did.  Get a better feel for the search area grid.

The reason for this is originally they were searching at 200 miles out, but they found the ship 40 miles closer to shore on the very first sonar track the following year, after reviewing their data over the winter.

Even they couldn't believe their luck.

[USAuPzlBxBob]

Just put in my order for America's Lost Treasure, which the Reviewers highly recommend as a must companion book to Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea.

Last one left in Very Good Condition.  ($7.99 + S&H)

Should look good on my living room coffee table.

HC, thank you for recommending it.

Bob

[USAuPzlBxBob]

And just received the book this afternoon.

The book itself is fine — no issues — but the dust jacket is a little loose and suffered some crumpling in shipment.

No worries.  The heavy, large pages are beautiful to encounter as I read the book from start to finish without peeking ahead.

Just turned to the immense overleaf page showing Victor Prevost's 1847 painting of Yerba Buena, which would be renamed San Francisco later that year.

The page just before shows James Wilson Marshall at Sutter's Mill in 1853.  He was the one who reached down into the American River had plucked the first pieces of gold.

And to think that he died in poverty 32 years later at age 74:  one failed venture after another left him penniless, living in a small cabin in Kelsey, California.

[GoldFinger1969]

Heard that some Spanish ship from 1709 might be raised soon and has $17 BILLION in treasure !!! 

[Henri Charriere]

On 3/18/2024 at 10:03 PM, GoldFinger1969 said:

Heard that some Spanish ship from 1709 might be raised soon and has $17 BILLION in treasure !!! 

Well, that rules out @Mike Meenderink 's The Merchant Royal, mentioned upthread with a bounty north of $1.5 B. There were reports of a shipwreck off the Dominican Republic and Ecuador or Chile and another off Europe, but what seems to happen is legal squabbles tie up recovery efforts until all the claims by insurers are settled.

[GoldFinger1969]

On 3/18/2024 at 4:16 PM, USAuPzlBxBob said:

He was the one who reached down into the American River had plucked the first pieces of gold.  And to think that he died in poverty 32 years later at age 74:  one failed venture after another left him penniless, living in a small cabin in Kelsey, California.

One of those phrases I never forgot in investing:  you only have to get rich ONCE. 

Think about it.  It's so true.

I would suspect that this guy SHOULD have had 1st-dibs on the best/easiest gold....probably made some $$$...but then either squandered it or invested in assets/businesses poorly.  

[Henri Charriere]

On 3/18/2024 at 10:03 PM, GoldFinger1969 said:

Heard that some Spanish ship from 1709 might be raised soon and has $17 BILLION in treasure !!! 

I do recall hearing about this but there are many wrecks that have been found in the nearly ten years since this was discovered and I could not place it. Now it seems People magazine ran a story on it recently.

The Spanish galleon "San Jose" was sunk by British warships in 1708 just off the coast of Cartagena, Colombia. (Now think about that for a moment... Colombia faces the Pacific Ocean. There wouldn't be a Panama Canal for another 200 years. That's a very long voyage in treacherous  waters between the southernmost point of South America and Antarctica and many thousands of miles from England.)

The then-president of Colombia declared this wreck to be the Most Valuable Treasure in the History of Humanity. Valued at $17B, it includes 11 million gold coins and 200 tons of silver and emeralds.  The wreck had been tied up in litigation that has since been resolved and recovery efforts can now proceed. It will be interesting to see what they find.

[USAuPzlBxBob]

The search for it, from something that I came across in my other meanderings on the SS Central America, is supposed to occur in April or May 2024.

Right around the corner.  Looking forward to it.

[USAuPzlBxBob]

Although my comprehension of country sizes and shapes comes mostly from playing RISK as a kid, the San Jose, I believe, may be off Columbia in the Caribbean… so north of Columbia, not west.

[USAuPzlBxBob]

On 3/19/2024 at 1:03 AM, GoldFinger1969 said:

One of those phrases I never forgot in investing:  you only have to get rich ONCE. 

Think about it.  It's so true.

I would suspect that this guy SHOULD have had 1st-dibs on the best/easiest gold....probably made some $$$...but then either squandered it or invested in assets/businesses poorly.  

My Financial Consultant, when I went in for a "checkup" over ten years ago, made a similar comment, when he saw how poorly I was diversified.

"You've already won the lottery, but you need help with your portfolio."  So, I went with a Financial Advisor to get sorted out.  Fired him a few years later.  Tried another Financial Advisor after him, and got just the kind of diversification I really wanted.  Fired him later that year, and pay attention to my portfolio myself, now.  Mostly a passive investor, but it is a passion for me.

[Henri Charriere]

On 3/24/2024 at 10:52 PM, USAuPzlBxBob said:

Although my comprehension of country sizes and shapes comes mostly from playing RISK as a kid, the San Jose, I believe, may be off Columbia in the Caribbean… so north of Columbia, not west.

Q.A.:  Thank you. I was just--

🐓:  Here, let me wipe that egg off your face.