Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (OMEX: Quote), a deep-ocean exploration company, has now placed operational reports and inventories of items recovered from the SS Central America shipwreck site on the company's website at www.shipwreck.net/ssca.php.
The items recovered include gold ingots, nuggets, dust and a wide variety of gold coins from $20 double eagles down through $10, $5, $2.50 and $1 gold coins, as well as California fractional gold, territorials and a wide variety of foreign gold.
Additional significant cultural heritage artifacts have been identified and will be recovered.
These items were initially filed under seal in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Division. Chief U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith has allowed the reports to be unsealed and made available to the public.
SS Central America was an 85-meter wooden-hulled, copper-sheathed, three-masted side-wheel steamship launched in 1853 as the SS George Law.
Operating during the California Gold Rush era, the ship was in continuous service on the Atlantic leg of the Panama Route between New York and San Francisco.
The Central America was caught in a hurricane and sank 160 miles off the coast of South Carolina on September 12, 1857. She was carrying a large consignment of gold for commercial parties, mainly in the form of ingots and freshly minted U.S. $20 Double Eagle coins.
Because of the large quantity of gold lost with the ship, public confidence in theeconomy was shaken, which contributed to the Panic of 1857.
The location of the SS Central America shipwreck was confirmed in September 1988 and recovery operations were conducted over a four-year period from 1988 to 1991.
A large quantity of commercial gold was recovered from approximately 5 percent of the shipwreck site during more than 1,000 hours of bottom time.
Odyssey has been working since April 2014 under contract to Ira Owen Kane, the receiver for Recovery Limited Partnership or RLP, the court-appointed salvor-in-possession of the SS Central America shipwreck.
OMEX, which closed at $1.39 on Thursday, is gaining 13.7 percent in pre-market activity.
