SS CENTRAL AMERICA ARTIFACTS FOR SALE

Bob Evans with SS Central America artifacts

It’s a hulk of an apparatus, a massive tangle of hoses and cords and cameras and lights and steel, complete with a large robotic arm.

Three decades ago, the custom-built, remotely operated research submersible, named the Nemo, was being guided to a storied shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean, about a day’s boat trip off the South Carolina coast.

Online video footage shows the Nemo in action, gingerly picking up gold bars and coins and other artifacts from one of the greatest lost treasures in U.S. history.

“It’s quite a beast,” said Bob Evans, the chief scientist and historian of the expedition.

Today, the Nemo rests, long motionless, in a dark corner of a warehouse northeast of Downtown.

And it’s for sale.

So is the large bronze bell from the shipwrecked S.S. Central America, submerged in water in a case near the Nemo and among a treasure trove of cultural artifacts that are on the market.

They’re part of continued court proceedings against Thomas “Tommy” Thompson and his exploration group after lawsuits were filed by investors who say they did not share in the profits of the lucrative expedition they financed. Local auctioneer Robert Cassel is working for the court-appointed receiver responsible for selling the shipwreck findings and other items connected to the project.

He’s entertaining all offers.

“There are thousands of items,” Cassel said, adding, “There’s still cigars rolled that you could smoke. There’s jewelry that people wore that’s part of the recovery. There’s clothing. There’s shaving gear. They have tickets from the passengers.”

The ship sunk in a hurricane in September 1857, carrying tons of Gold Rush-era gold from California. Thompson and his exploration group spent years recovering items from the underwater site.

“The treasure of the S.S. Central America is just so huge and vast, it is like nothing else I expect to work on in my life,” Evans said.

Cassel said the entire lot is probably worth between $500,000 and $1 million. The aforementioned bell alone is valued at $100,000 or more.

He’s been working with some individual buyers who were considering purchasing the entire lot. The items will be sold to the highest bidder piecemeal beginning early next year if a single buyer can’t be found before then.

Evans, who devoted years to the exploration and who was on hand when the items were initially pulled from the ocean, hopes some sort of museum will be established.

“It clearly can’t be maintained like this,” Evans said. “I would love it if there could be a museum or something that would memorialize and immortalize the efforts that we put forth doing this project. it was an American dream.”

To read the complete article, see:
Artifacts that Tommy Thompson recovered from sunken treasure ship for sale (https://www.dispatch.com/news/20181120/artifacts-that-tommy-thompson-recovered-from-sunken-treasure-ship-for-sale)

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