93 Discovering a Treasure Worth Billions

For some people unearthing buried treasure is an obsession. However, for others devising the means to locate that treasure is the greater obsession. Tommy Thompson, even though he located a sunken ship carrying as much as $1 billion in gold, definitely belongs in the latter category.

Thompson developed an interest in underwater salvage as a young man. He quickly became determined to find a way to explore deep-sea wrecks. In the mid-1980s, when Thompson began his exploratory forays, no accurate equipment was available. So Thompson and his crew developed their own. They devised a huge remote operating vehicle weighing over 6,000 pounds and equipped it with sonar detectors, cameras, and, most importantly, arms for retrieval of artifacts. So meticulously designed were these equipment and their techniques that they were able to pick up newly minted coins from the ocean floor without scratching them.

The ship that Thompson had set his sights on was the Central America, a steamship carrying gold from the mines in California, which had sunk off the South Carolina coast in 1857. Thompson determined the exact whereabouts of the lost ship by interviewing descendants of survivors and poring through written accounts of the tragedy. In September 1988 Thompson and his crew finally found the remains of the Central America. Their work not only netted them millions of dollars, but also opened up a whole new era of underwater retrieval.

93 发现价值数十亿的宝藏

对有些人来说，挖掘埋藏的宝藏是一种执念。但对另一些人来说，设计出定位宝藏的方法才是更强烈的执念。汤米·汤普森虽然找到了一艘载有多达10亿美元黄金的沉船，但他显然属于后一类人。

汤普森年轻时就对水下打捞产生了兴趣。他很快下定决心，要找到探索深海沉船的方法。20世纪80年代中期，当汤普森开始探索尝试时，还没有精确的设备可用。于是汤普森和他的团队研发了自己的设备。他们设计了一个重达6000多磅的大型遥控操作装置，配备了声纳探测器、摄像头，最重要的是，还有用于回收文物的机械臂。这些设备和技术的设计极为精细，以至于他们能从海底捡起新铸造的硬币而不刮伤它们。

汤普森盯上的船是“中美洲号”，这是一艘从加利福尼亚矿场运送黄金的蒸汽船，于1857年在南卡罗来纳州海岸附近沉没。汤普森通过采访幸存者的后代，以及仔细研读这场悲剧的文字记录，确定了这艘失踪船只的确切位置。1988年9月，汤普森和他的团队终于找到了“中美洲号”的残骸。他们的工作不仅为他们赚得了数百万美元，还开启了水下回收的全新时代。