This is a bizarre story which we have been following for, literally, years. It looked for an instant like it might be resolved and then things fells apart once again. Tommy Thompson — engineer, treasure hunter, alleged swindler, and the current occupant of a federal prison — had made a deal to turn over 500 missing gold coins from the wreck of the SS Central America, which sank in 1857 off the South Carolina coast. Thompson has been in held in prison on charges of contempt, pending the return of the missing coins, since he was apprehended as a fugitive in 2015. 

Last week, the deal fell through when Thompson said he did not know how to obtain the coins. He alleges that his then-girlfriend gave the coins to a stranger in the lobby of a self-storage business in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 2010. Thompson testified that he couldn’t recall the details of the exchange, other than making plans on the phone. He said that the stranger presumably deposited the coins in Belize, where Thompson had set up a trust. He said that the trust, which he believes is holding the coins, has not responded to his communications. 

As we posted previously, SS Central America was a 280-foot paddlewheel steamer operating between New York and Aspinwall, Panama during the California Gold Rush. The ship sank in a hurricane off South Carolina in 1857, killing 425 passengers and crew and sending 30,000 pounds of California gold coins, ingots and gold dust to the sea floor. The lost gold was valued at $2 million or roughly $300-400 million in current dollars. News of the loss shook the US financial markets and contributed to the Panic of 1857. 

The ship sank in over 7,000 feet of water 160 miles of the South Carolina coast, far too deep to salvage until engineer Tommy Thompson built an underwater robot called “Nemo” to pinpoint the location of the wreck. He succeeded in bringing up around 3 tons of gold. Unfortunately, his investors didn’t receive any of it. In 2012, Tommy Thompson disappeared rather than appear in court to answer charges. He was on the run until the law caught up with him in 2015.

In 2014, another group of investors hired Odyssey Marine Exploration to continue the salvage of the shipwreck.  Odyssey successfully recovered 3,100 gold coins, more than 10,000 silver coins, and 45 gold ingots, much of which was on display in Long Beach. 

In 2015, Thompson arranged a deal in which he would reveal the location of an estimated 500 missing gold coins in exchange for a reduced sentence. The coins are valued at between $2.5 million and $4 million. He still has not done so and Tommy Thompson remains in prison.  

Thanks to Irwin Bryan for contributing to this post.