Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea

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Summary: Excellent true story of discovery, innovation and triumph
Review: Gary Kinder does a masterful job of research in capturing this fascinating story of the discovery and scientific salvage of gold treasure. The facts are linked to amazing human connections of the past and present.

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Summary: Exceptional Book
Review: I appreciated the almost equal attention given to both Tommy Thompson AND to the history of the Central America. I have to disagree with other reviewers here that gripe about the amount of personal coverage given to Thompson's life. This is NOT just a history of the Central America and its recovery and should not be approached as such. I highly recommend this book!

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Summary: Science triumphs over shortcuts
Review: This exceptionally well written book chronicles the triumph of dogged science over the elements. This book has it all. Tragedy (the loss of the Central America with it's concomitant loss of life), allure ( boat is filled with gold), history (at the time of the California gold rush) and science (Thompson the odd genius). It's a story in which science and eccentricity overpower incredible odds to reach a goal, which surprisingly enough is not necessarily the gold at the bottom of the sea.

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Summary: Wheww! What stinks?
Review: A good story that's poorly written: You can skim the first three quarters where he tells you everything 2-3x. Is there a test at the end? Richard Preston, please rewrite

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Summary: Couldn't Put It Down
Review: Gary Kinder does a great job of capturing the drama of this story. From the harrowing events surrounding the Central America's sinking in 1857 to the myriad layers of creativity and determination by Tommy Thompson and his crew 131 years later this is a rich (no pun intended) and evolving story. I am moved by stories that show how people can work together, against tremendous odds, to achieve something extraordinary.

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Summary: Great story well told
Review: I'm surprised this book has not been a consistent NY Times top 10. It combines a story akin to Titanic with a modern-day gold rush. The author has two great heroes and does a great job building up each story line.

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Summary: What a great and well told story
Review: I bought this book in Melbourne on a business trip during which I had just finished reading Lansing's Endurance and The Perfect Storm. I found this book to be of that caliber and was a great read. I love telling friends about this book and listening to them thank me for recommending it! Great Job Mr. Kinder - thanks for this wonderful story!

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Summary: Interesting read but overall disappointing
Review: This book started out fantastically, with the account of Captain Herndon's ship and the tragedy those aboard went through. However, the next 500 pages or so were a sometimes excruciatingly painful read on everything I *didn't* want to know about Tommy Thompson. It was so bad at times I wondered whether the author gets down on bended knee when talking to Thompson. While I realize there were trade secrets to be preserved in this highly competitive field, I really felt that the author went to ridiculous lengths to cover them up in the book. Finally, the lack of pictures and illustrations is absolutely inexcusable. This book easily could have had 200 pages (mostly of Thompson-worship)trimmed without a loss.

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Summary: One of the best!
Review: This book has two incredible stories intertwined with each other. First, the history of the SS Central America has an intriguing history, as well as, the passengers who rode on this majestic ship in its final voyage. The "chivalric courage" and strength exhibited by the passengers during the final perilous hours is intense. Second, the desire of Tommy Thompson at taking an impossible dream and proving his disbelievers wrong, epitomizes the entrepreneurial spirit. I must say this is one of the best books I have ever read.

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Summary: Comes in like a lion goes out like a lamb without wool.
Review: The opening of the book, describing the sinking of the ship, was well done and very interesting. Each time the story switched to the background of the recent recovery efforts and a laborious, plodding, overly-detailed description of the overblown ego of Tommy Thompson, I became impatient to return to the historical accounts. Unfortunately, these historical accounts became fewer and farther between, eventually ceasing altogether at ~page 200 of a total ~500 pages. Given the absence of illustrations and photographs, I also became annoyed reading in excrutiating detail about the care taken during the recovery efforts to photodocument the artifacts in place. With the addition of some photographs and a 50 percent reduction in the latter portions of the book, this would be a 5-star book. I suppose one might choose to enrich Tommy Thompson further (all that gold was not enough, apparently) by buying the "companion table-top book" he put out recently, and just skim the latter half of the book.