Plot/Summary:
In 1857 the steamer SS Central America, carrying 600 passengers and a large amount of gold from the California Gold Rush, encountered a violent storm as it sailed from Cuba to the Carolinas. In a suspenseful retelling of the frightening sequence of events that led to the sinking of the ship, Kinder often quotes from the memoirs of those who survived. The stage is thus set for the quest in the 1980s by a young engineer named Tommy Thompson to recover the thousands of dollars worth of gold lying at the bottom of the ocean in the wreckage. Thompson was determined to find a way to work in 8,000 feet of water to retrieve one of the greatest shipwreck treasures ever recovered.  

Comments:
In a suspenseful narrative, Gary Kinder describes with rich detail the fateful voyage of the SS Central America and intertwines that dramatic story with the story of the inventive engineers who devised a way to reach the treasure at the bottom of the sea.

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Reviewed by nk, 4/25/2007. Other reviews by nk. Have you read this book? Tell us what you think!