More than four hundred passengers and crewmen died when the sidewheel steamer Central America foundered off the U.S. East Coast in September 1857. Thirteen decades later her wreck site a mile and a half beneath the Atlantic has yielded much of her cargo of Cal ifornia gold-as well as valuable scientific and archaeological discoveries.
The Steamship
Central America and Her Era By Charles E. Herdendorf and Judy Conrad
The 1850s were a glorious peri od in the nautical hi story of America. Clipperships were mak ing the often treacherous voyage aro und Cape Horn , while sleek sidew heel steamers plied the Panama Route. The di scovery of gold in California sparked thi s trade, and for two decades enormous shipments of gold and the patronage of affluent passengers sustained it. More than one hundred steamships served in the isthmian routes, but none remain and few are reco llected. But one ship stands out for the tragedy which befell her, the heroism of her passengers and crew, the fasc inating story of her rediscovery, and the recovery of the greatest lost treasure in American hi story. And now that she has been found , we can celebrate thi s ship and li sten to wh at she is te lling us about our heritage. She was the SS Central America. The Central America, once a handsome sidewheel steamer born of the California Gold Rush, now lies deteriorating on the bottom of the North Atlantic. Overwhelmed by a hurricane in 1857, she sank in water a mile and a half deep, taking hundreds of passengers and crew and the ir be longings with her. At nearl y 200 miles offshore and at thi s depth the ocean is a tranquil , cold and lightl ess 26
wo rld that is probabl y the most unchanging environment on earth . A vio lent hurricane spira led out of the Sargasso Sea during the second week of September 1857, damaging more than 40 ships at sea between North Carolina and Georgia. The Central America was on the last leg of her 44th round trip voyage, inbound for New York , when the storm hit. She battled mountainou s seas for three days before sinking on September 12, 1857. Of the 578 passengers and crew on board , 425 peri shed and tons of California gold were lost. This was America ' s worst civ il di saster at sea and for months the sinking made headlines across the country. But soon it wou ld be ecl ipsed by stories of the impending Civil War, and by the turn of the century the SS Central America would be all but forgotten. For 130 years the final resting pl ace of the Central America was unknown. Then a small team of high-tech eng ineers and scienti sts organi zed in Ohio, th e Columbus-America Di scove ry Group, took up the challenge of finding the ship. After yea rs of painstaking research and months of grueling ocean s urveys, they found the wreck lying on the Blake Ridge in nearl y 8,000 feet of
water some 200 miles east of Savannah. They a lso discovered the treasures of the Central America, not just he r go ld , but o ther treasures-her ri ch hi sto ry, myste riou s marine life thriving on her wreckage and contributions to marine sc ie nce and tec hnology resulting from the ex peditio n. Eighty percent of the Panama Route steamers were built in New York 's shipyards. There , along the East River, the kee l for the Central America was laid on Marc h 25, 1852, by master shipbuilder William H. Webb. Orig inall y named the George Law, she was launched a scant seven months later and towed a few blocks upriver to Morgan Iron Works. Here, George W. Quintard oversaw the installation of the steam engines and the elegant, 32-foot diameter sidewhee ls. In October 1853 , she was placed in service by the United States Mail Steamship Company and went on to complete 43 round trips between New York and Aspinwall, Panama. The sleek steamer was 278 feet long, constructed of pine and oak timbers with coppe r sheathing to protect the hull against shipworms and powered by two inclined steam engines which drove midshi p paddlewheels. Her oversized fireSEA HISTORY 64, WINTER 1992-93
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