Photo: Holabird Western Americana Collections

On September 12, 1857, the 289-foot-long sidewheel steamer SS Central America sank in a hurricane off the US East Coast. When she sank, 425 of her 578 passengers and crew were drowned and 30,000 pounds (13,600 kg) of gold from the California gold rush was lost. The loss of so much gold contributed directly to the Panic of 1857.

In 1988, the wreck was located and an estimated $100-159 million dollars worth of gold was recovered. The rights to the find have since become the subject of a decades-long legal battle. 

Earlier this month, the Holabird Western Americana Collections showcased at auction 270 items recovered from the ship. Included in the auction was a pair of work pants that sold for $114,000.

The pants were found in a trunk belonging to John Dement, a veteran of the Mexican-American War from Oregon. The New York Times reports that Mr. Dement’s trunk was recovered in 1991, and the items inside, which included socks, nightshirts, and paperback books, were salvageable because the trunk had little to no oxygen inside.

The trunk’s condition prevented its contents from exhibiting the bacterial degradation and biological consumption seen in items that were more exposed on the shipwreck, Robert Evans, the chief scientist and historian of the SS Central America project, said in the auction catalog.

Inside the trunk, scientists also found the work pants, which are made of a thick unknown material and covered in black and brown stains. It was not clear who made the winning bid for the pants.

Holabird Western Americana Collections said the work pants could be affiliated with Levi Strauss because he was a major seller of dry goods during the Gold Rush and lost treasure in the shipwreck.

Mr. Strauss and his associate, Jacob Davis, patented the first modern blue jeans in 1873, 16 years after the SS Central America sank.

Tracey Panek, a historian and director of the Levi Strauss & Co. Archives, said in an email that linking the pants to Mr. Strauss was speculative. Ms. Panek, who inspected the pants and other artifacts from the wreckage in person, said that while she was excited by the discovery, she saw nothing that would link the pants to Mr. Strauss.

More than a century after the ship went down, the treasure hunter Tommy Thompson found the wreck. He was later accused of not providing proceeds from the haul to the 161 people who invested in his search. Some of the investors sued Thompson in 2012, and he was ordered to appear in court and disclose the location of gold recovered from the shipwreck. He fled and became a fugitive until U.S. marshals arrested him in 2015 at a hotel in Florida. He has been in federal prison since 2015.

Thanks to Larry Witmer for contributing to this post.