Steamship Pulaski, divers find a stash of rare gold coins at the site of 1838 shipwreck off NC
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I love these shipwreck stories............especially when gold and silver coins are involved.
Divers find a stash of rare gold coins at the site of 1800s shipwreck off NC coast
By Mark Price
msprice@charlotteobserver.com
January 26, 2018 04:20 PM
A stash of gold coins found Monday is the latest piece of evidence that a shipwreck 40-plus miles off the North Carolina coast is that of the steamship Pulaski, which took half its wealthy passengers to the bottom of the Atlantic in 1838.
Divers found 14 gold coins and 24 silver coins in a spot “no bigger than a cigar box.” All predate the ship’s sinking and include one British coin that experts say could be worth $100,000. Other gold coins in the collection are valued in the $10,000 to $12,000 range, officials said.
James Sinclair, a marine archaeologist involved in project, says finding gold coins proves the team is in the right spot.
“This evidence supports reports that valuables, including gold and silver, were aboard the Pulaski when she sank,” Sinclair said in a statement.
Those involved in the project have one particular passenger in mind: Charles Ridge, a man who survived but lost $20,000 in the disaster, all of it in gold coins.
One of the most famous shipwrecks, treasure may have been found off NC coast. Here is the evidence.
The disappearance of Pulaski remains one of the nation’s most dramatic and deadly maritime disasters, partly because half on board died, but also because its passengers included some of the most prominent families in the southeast. Among those lost was New York Congressman William B. Rochester and six members of the Lamar family, then among the richest families in the southeast. The luxury steamship that went to the bottom of the Atlantic in 1838 with half its affluent passengers may have been found 40 miles off the coast of North Carolina. Blue Water Ventures International explains what they've found so far.
Ridge’s fate is legendary, because he rescued a wealthy heiress by holding her atop a “a floating piece of parlor furniture.” He proposed marriage as they drifted along for four days. She accepted, even though he’d lost everything when the ship exploded and sank.
The coins were uncovered as part of joint project by Blue Water Ventures International and Endurance Exploration Group, two publicly traded companies that expect to find a treasure trove of valuables brought aboard the doomed luxury ship by wealthy passengers.
Keith Webb of Blue Water Ventures said in an interview Friday the 14 gold coins are not Ridge’s fortune.
“When we find his money, it won’t be the size of a cigar box. It will be the size of a chest,” said Webb. “We will find it, I assure you, and it will be in one pile. And that will be gold coins with a specific history attached – an actual story of a man whose riches are lost and a woman still committed to marry him…. It’s romantic. It’s exciting.”
Webb predicts they’ll find thousands of coins that could be worth millions. So far, he says they’ve found 70 U.S., Spanish and Mexican coins during a half dozen visits.
The sinking of the Pulaski is listed among the nation’s worst maritime disasters.
Around midnight June 13-14, 1838, the ship’s boilers exploded, and 100 of the roughly 200 people aboard died. The passengers included some of the South’s wealthiest families, who had little time to collect their things before jumping overboard. Newspaper accounts tell of “panicky passengers in their night clothes, seeking refuge on the promenade deck as the bow rose out of the water and ripped apart.”
NOAA and its research partners are surveying, for the first time since they sank more than 70 years ago, the remains of two ships that were involved in a convoy battle off North Carolina during World War II.
It was long believed the Pulaski went down about 30 miles off the coast, but the explorers believe they have found the wreckage more than 10 miles farther out to sea.
A report compiled by Webb at the project’s start noted the shipwreck happened in an era when wealthy women would have been traveling with a large quantity of personal jewelry to maintain their public stature. “In many cases, jewelry would already have been antiques; family heirlooms produced by some of the finest jewelers in France, Russia and England and date from the 1600’s or 1700’s,” says the report
Historians hope the divers will eventually uncover definitive proof of the ship’s identity, possibly the ship’s bell with Pulaski etched in it, or numbers on the boilers that can be traced to a manufacturer. So far, neither has been found.
Other artifacts discovered include two turkey trays, a men’s straight razor and a candlestick holder. Endurance Exploration owns the wreck site, having filed an admiralty claim in federal court. That means it has legal right to salvage the spot and owns whatever is recovered.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article196911119.html
Comments
Wow - tragic, but fascinating! Thanks for posting it.
Cool read, thank you.
Love the history
Wow!!!
It will be interesting to see what all they come up with. What an exciting project!
The fish in the first video are hysterical. They're so friendly and curious.
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Looks like a VERY shallow dive, with the fish, ambient light, and dive gear.
Wow! Can't wait to hear more.
Glad they are not 1857-S double eagles ....
Awesome !!!
Very cool story... thanks for posting!
One of the silver coins found was an 1818 Bust quarter. I would be curious to see how NGC will grade it after conservation.
Great story and what a thrill to find such treasure... I really enjoy treasure stories - whether on land or in the sea...Cheers, RickO
I hope this booty comes to auction faster than the S.S. Central America stuff.
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This is 1838 so no chance of more 1857s. It also predates the Cal Gold rush...
The big treasure they are looking for is a chest reported to have Charles Ridge's $20,000 of gold in it. The ship sailed from Savannah, GA - anybody think about what mints were active in the south in the 1830s...
Sailed June 13, 1838
Charlotte - began production March 28th with Eagles ($5)
Dahlonega - began production with 80 Eagles ($5) on April 17th
New Orleans - began production May 7th with 30 dimes
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
That's a shallow dive?? I'm out!
So what's the 100K British coin??? 1819 Sovereign, maybe?
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Here come the insurance companies ...
Nice read, Good story. Thanks for posting it
Those Classic Head $5s look pretty spiffy to me...
What is now proved was once only imagined. - William Blake
Thanks for posting this
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Blue Water Ventures thinks there is another $20 miliion+ in gold and silver coins under the sand..
https://www.news4jax.com/news/jacksonville-explorers-make-major-shipwreck-discovery
Comparing this ship wreck to the Titanic.
From BizJournal 1/29/18
Artifacts including old coins worth tens of thousands of dollars are among the evidence that a shipwreck found off the coast of North Carolina is that of the Pulaski, a luxury steamship that sank in 1838 killing half its passengers.
Among the items divers have recovered are several gold and silver coins predating the maritime disaster, including one British coin valued at more than $100,000, experts said.
The sinking of the steamship Pulaski has been compared the Titanic because of the number of prominent passengers on board when it sank and the great loss of life, the Charlotte Observer reported.
The steamship was headed from Savannah to Baltimore on June 13, 1838 when the boiler exploded and the ship sank in 45 minutes killing 100 of the roughly 200 people on board, per the Observer, including many who were scalded to death by steam. Among the dead were New York congressman William B. Rochester and members of several prominent Southern families.
Blue Water Ventures International, a Florida underwater exploration company, said last week they believed they had the evidence to prove wreckage found 40 miles off the North Carolina coast under 100 feet of water was that of the Pulaski.
That evidence includes a ship’s boilers, one of which is split open as would have happened in the Pulaski explosion. Also found were 14 gold coins and 24 silver coins that predate the ship’s sinking.
Other items recovered from the wreckage include a straight razor, a candlestick holder and a turkey platter. However, explorers have yet to find anything labeled with the Pulaski’s name or any serial numbers that can definitively be traced back to the ship, per the Observer.
Dr. Joseph Schwarzer, director of the North Carolina Maritime Museum, said comparing the sinking of the Pulaski to the Titanic might be hyperbole, but that the sinking was “one of the more significant disasters in American maritime history.” He said he is keeping an open mind that Blue Ventures has found the shipwreck, but said he is waiting for “proof positive,” such as finding the ship’s bell.
Blue Water Ventures International representatives said the company plans to expand its search area a few miles in each direction from the wreckage over the next two years.
https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2018/01/gold-found-in-wreckage-of-steamship-likened-to.html?page=all