Columbus-America Discovery Group
The Columbus-America Discovery Group was a fundraising joint venture and organization for the salvage of the SS Central America shipwreck . The association of 161 deep-sea engineers and private and institutional investors was founded on the initiative of the engineer and initiator of the company Thomas G. Thompson in 1985 in Columbus (Ohio) with a capital stock of 10 million US dollars.
The group's salvage company was successful through numerous and groundbreaking technical innovations in deep-sea recovery technology. Among other things, Thompson developed the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) with or for the special requirements of rescue. An immense gold treasure consisting of fine gold bars and gold coins weighing around 20 tons was recovered in 1987. At that time, the total value of gold was estimated to be between 100 and 150 million US dollars. The author and temporary companion of the rescue, Gary Kinder , later wrote a biographical novel ("Das Goldschiff"), also published in German, about the founding of the group, about Thompson and the group's rescue activities.
literature
- Gary Kinder: Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea . Atlantic Monthly Press, 1998. ISBN 0-87113-717-8
- Gary Kinder: The Gold Ship - The greatest treasure hunt of the 20th century. Piper, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-492-23256-6 .
- Thommas G. Thompson: America's Lost Treasure . Atlantic Monthly Press, 1998. ISBN 0-87113-732-1