In 1857, the U.S. mail ship SS
Central America
left California for the East Coast. Aboard were 477 passengers, many of
them newly rich from the California Gold Rush. They were returning home
with their gold, over $2 million worth (hundreds of millions in today's
money). But on the last leg of the trip, between Cuba and New York, the
ship encountered a hurricane.
The Central America
sprang leaks, the water putting the fire out in the boiler, and the
paddlewheel and pumps stopped working. Alarmed, the passengers and crew
formed a bucket brigade to bail out the sinking ship, while Captain
Herndon ordered the flag flown upside down – a universal distress
signal.
By Saturday, September 12, the ship was doomed. That
afternoon another ship was spotted, the Marine out of Boston, and
Captain Herndon ordered the women and children into the Central
America’s lifeboats to make the hazardous transfer to the Marine. Around
150 women and children made it before the weather forced the Marine to
leave. The male passengers and crew could not make the transfer. Most of
them were still on board when the Central America sank around 8 o’clock
that night, settling on the sea floor about 8,000 feet below the
surface, 160 miles offshore.
Only 49 men survived,
and the loss of the gold to the bottom of the Atlantic caused several
banks to collapse. Read the whole story of
the sinking of the SS Central America and its aftermath.
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