Rating: 
Summary: This is a great book !
Review: A true story, this book reads like a good tech-thriller novel. Easily one of the better books I've read in a long time. I highly recommend to anyone, but especially to those out there like me that love tech-adventure fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: This is one of the most riveting tales I've read. It seemed I was right there with the passengers, and then with Harvey's crew. A must read for those who love the sea, its beauty and its terror.
Rating:
Summary: A most entertaining and interesting story.
Review: All the time I was reading "Ship of Gold..", I was thinking what a nice job Kinder did with it (there were a number of clever aspects to it including the drama of the actual destruction of the ship) and I wondered how he got some of the details. Gradually it became clear that it was pieced together from numerous survivor accounts covered extensively in the papers of the day. That task itself must have been difficult in this day and age with so many years gone by. I felt he really did a great job with the book and I could not think of anything which would have made it better. The author does a great job with the details of explaining the frustrations of putting together a salvage operation; I had no idea how involved and risky it could be. This is a book that is hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Super blending of history and adventure
Review: I am a history buff, so I was really surprised that I had never heard of this horrendous ship wreck, or of Tommy Thompson's amazing discovery. Maybe that's why I was so fascinated watching the story unfold. Kinder's rendering of the floundering ship and the heroic measures taken to save the passengers was breathtaking. Then on to the modern day saga of finding that wreck in 8000 feet deep ocean. Thompson is such an amazingly talented, intelligent, persistant individual, that it's unfathomable that anyone else BUT he could have ever accomplished this mission. And for him it was about engineering skills relating to deep sea exploration. A treasure ship was worthy of finding, and tempting to investors. There is a lot of suspense throughout the story, with competitors, bad weather, and court battles. I really really wanted to see some pictures though. As a side note: I enjoyed the chapter about the Battelle Institute, because my son interned there in the summer of 2001. Excellent reading!
Rating: 
Summary: Good story, but the format could have been better
Review: First, let me say that I really enjoyed this book. It is a top notch adventure that the author takes us on. It is one of those books you are sorry to see end. A look at the other reviews will fill you in on the book, but I don't understand the one reviewer who criticized Thompson for endangering a crewmember and for disturbing an archeological site. If you read the book, you will find neither occurs...
Anyway, the book, being a history, and not a novel, REALLY needs an index. I found myself confused throughout by who was who. There are too many characters to keep track of without an index.
Second, through the book there are numerous descriptions just BEGGING for a photograph to see what the author is talking about. Com'on! There were THOUSANDS of photographs taken, why were ZERO included in the book??? Except for a stingy few TINY photos on the back cover of the paperback, I had NO idea what any of these things looked like, and I would have liked to see what the recovery effort used to succeed. Not to mention that I did not know what any players look like except Tommy Thompson. A fine book that really needed pictures and an index. I guess I will poke around to see what I can find in the way of photos of the operation.
Ron in SF
Rating:
Summary: Superb story.
Review: I've read several of the reviews here, and it appears that everyone seemed to enjoy the book as much as I. It was certainly the best book I've read in a long time, and arguably the best true story account written in the last 20 years. I have been motiviated by this book, because of the passion, commitment, innovations and sheer determination of Mr. Thompson, who manifests incredible fortitude. This book is bound to positively influence anyone that has ever had an ounce of motiviation about anything. It's a great read and a great inspiration. Honestly, I couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: I loved this book!
Review: This book was recommended to me and on my "to read" list for the past two years. Boy, was I sorry I waited so long!! From the gripping account of the shipwreck to the fascinating glimpse into the mind of a true entrepreneur and engineer, this book is a real page turner!
Rating:
Summary: A FABULOUS READ!
Review: This is the best book I've read this year, and I don't read much non-fiction. It reads like a novel, yet gives the full scoop of how this ship sank and the treasure was rescued in a spellbinding way. I learned so much about the "treasure hunt" business, and was fascinated to learn about all the research that goes into it long before the rescue ship ever goes out on its search. Amazing technology. This book was a real education.
Rating:
Summary: Payoff from persistence
Review: Ship of Gold may be the ultimate Horatio Alger story. Kinder's account of the bizarre Tommy Thompson's quest to locate a 19th Century shipwreck is a delightful rags to riches story. Kinder weaves historical and contemporary events together seamlessly. He takes us back and forth in time, showing how a clear modern knowledge of each stage of the shipwreck led to the S.S. Central America's location at the bottom of the Atlantic. Kinder is adept at the difficult task of maintaining two story lines in one book. The loss of the Central America is clearly a fascinating story in its own right. Its cargo, millions of dollars worth of gold bullion would have had significant impact on the nascent American economy. Kinder has performed a major feat in tracking the course of the journey and presenting the passenger accounts of the storm and sinking. He shows us the terror, the struggles to preserve the ship and the attempts by other vessels to rescue the survivors. His descriptive powers are excellent - the reader is kept enthralled as the tragedy unfolds. Thompson's career is just as finely detailed as the historical account. Kinder shows us the workings of a firmly focussed mind. Thompson has the capacity to irritate and captivate those he deals with, whether on technical or economic levels. Clearly, he is infectious when presenting ideas or encouraging his followers. The results were almost foreordained that he would succeed in locating the wreck. The finding, however, was anything but inevitable. Finding any sunken vessel at such depths, let alone the correct one, Kinder shows is a nearly insurmountable problem. Yet, in his account, success is achieved. It took ingenuity, persistence and insight, with some help from technology. Deep sea exploration devices, while not exactly in their infancy at this time, had serious limitations. Kinder recounts many of the issues Thompson and his team faced, but is reticent about their solutions. He presumably laboured under some form of non-disclosure agreement with Thompson. Even without explicit details, Thompson's ingenuity and persistence is clearly manifest. Kinder portrays him in the clearest possible light just as he illuminates the history of the Central America. The combination is an action-packed epic, in both historical and modern perspectives.
Rating:
Summary: sobering and inspiring
Review: After being totally gripped from the historic account of the ship going down, the next chapter abruptly shifts to modern times and begins the story of Tommy Thompson. This shift was jarring, cause i didn't wanna leave the past before finding out what happened. And while I got into Tommy's story too, I was glad to get back to the ship going down to hear more about that. It was no time before i was gripped by what Tommy had going, and didn't want to leave his world to go back to the past. I like reading about "great" people...humanitarians, businessmen, athletes, artists, people who believe in their talent, overcome odds and get famous for being really good at what they do.....but Tommy Thompson's character is unusually inspiring to me because he isn't about getting rich, famous, or powerful...he's about challenging his intellect and getting others to challenge theirs to do something that noone had ever done before...a "multidisciplinary" task. It's the way I think God intended us to be......it's a beautiful thing.
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