Saturday, July 30th

Treasures from 1857 'Ship of Gold' shipwreck showing in Reno

By JENNY KANE Reno Gazette Journal Reno Gazette-Journal

A pair of work pants, possibly made by Levi Strauss, from the S.S. Central America are seen in a warehouse in Sparks, Nevada on May 4, 2022. The fabled "Ship of Gold" sank about 160 miles off the coast of South Carolina during a hurricane in September 1857. (Jason Bean/The Reno Gazette-Journal via AP)

RENO, Nev. (AP) - A mysterious daguerreotype of a woman and a pair of jeans possibly made by Levi Strauss himself are among nearly 1,000 Gold Rush-era treasures recovered from the fabled "Ship of Gold" now on display in Reno.

Since their recovery between the late 1980s and 2014, the remarkable findings extracted from the sunken S.S. Central America have been in secret storage. This week, they began a national tour at the National Antique Bottle Convention from Thursday through Sunday at the Grand Sierra Resort.

This is the first public exhibition of the artifacts, which will be auctioned off later this year, the Reno Gazette Journal reported.

Among the notable recovered items are the lid to the oldest known Wells Fargo treasure shipment box; 1857 clothing, including a pair of the earliest known Gold Rush-era canvas work pants jeans with a button fly that may have been made by Strauss in his early years in business; and jewelry made from California Gold Rush "mother lode" native gold in quartz as gemstones, according to Fred Holabird, president of Holabird Western Americana Collections in Reno.

Daguerreotypes from the S.S. Central America are seen in a warehouse in Sparks, Nevada on May 4, 2022. Daguerreotypes are photographs taken by an early photographic process employing an iodine-sensitized silvered plate and mercury vapor. The fabled "Ship of Gold" sank about 160 miles off the coast of South Carolina during a hurricane in September 1857. (Jaseon Bean/The Reno Gazette-Journal via AP)

One daguerreotype metal plate photograph of an unidentified young woman was nicknamed, "Mona Lisa of the Deep," by the recovery team that retrieved the mysterious photo from the seabed where it was discovered in a pile of the ship's coal.

"There is even a key to the ship's wine storage room and an S.S. Central America brass name tag attached to a set of keys that belonged to the ship's purser. We believe these were for the locked room where the gold treasure cargo was kept," Holabird said in a press release.

Other items recovered include pistols; brass luggage tags; passengers' ticket receipts; galley utensils and dishes; ornate, flint glass wine and spirits decanters that appear to have been a standard amenity in the first-class staterooms; eyeglasses in solid gold frames; and chewing tobacco in a pouch apparently from the 1851 London World's Fair, Holabird said.

Artifacts from the SS Central America are seen in a warehouse in Sparks, Nevada on May 4, 2022. The SS Central America sunk about 160 miles off the coast of South Carolina in 1857. (Jason Bean/The Reno Gazette-Journal via AP)

While laden with booty, the S.S. Central America shipwreck was also a deep sea gravesite.

The ship sank 7,200 feet (2,195 meters) deep in the Atlantic Ocean during a hurricane on September 12, 1857. The ship was on a voyage from Panama to New York carrying tons of California Gold Rush coins, ingots, and gold dust from the San Francisco and Northern California area.

Of the 578 passengers and crewmembers, 425 died and the loss of the gold cargo was a major factor in the economically devastating financial Panic of 1857 in the United States, according to a recent press release.

A gold ingot from the S.S. Central America is seen in a warehouse in Sparks, Nevada on May 4, 2022. The fabled "Ship of Gold" sank about 160 miles off the coast of South Carolina during a hurricane in September 1857. (Jason Bean/The Reno Gazette-Journal via AP)

Recovery from the shipwreck site of what has been described as "America's greatest treasure" occurred in several stages between 1988 through 1991 and again in 2014, but it was sullied by scandal in recent years.

Tommy Thompson, a deep-sea explorer who found the shipwreck in 1988, has been in federal prison for six years because he refuses to answer questions about the whereabouts of 500 gold coins, according to a report in USA Today. He also evaded investors who funded his venture and was a fugitive for two years.

The items on display during the upcoming convention were kept in storage in three different states: Maryland, Massachusetts, and Ohio, until a court-approved settlement was reached ending a decades-long ownership dispute.

Scientist Bob Evans, who was on each of the recovery missions, will be at the exhibit in Reno to talk to visitors about the "Ship of Gold" and the recovered Gold Rush artifacts.

The items will be offered in public auctions in October and November by Holabird Western Americana Collections. Currently, California Gold Marketing Group of Brea, Calif. owns the antiques.

Fred Holabird, left, and Bob Evans pose for a portrait with artifacts from the S.S. Central America in a warehouse in Sparks, Nevada, on May 4, 2022. The fabled "Ship of Gold" sank about 160 miles off the coast of South Carolina during a hurricane in September 1857. (Jason Bean/The Reno Gazette-Journal via AP)