Salvage kingpin jailed as treasures tour US

Explorer behind bars until he discloses location of 500 coins missing from the wreck of ‘ship of gold’

ARTEFACTS salvaged from a 165-yearold shipwreck have embarked on a tour of America , while the man who discovered them languishes in jail.

Tommy Thompson, 70, will remain behind bars in Michigan until he discloses the whereabouts of 500 gold coins which he salvaged from the SS Central America which sank off the North Carolina coast in 1857.

To his supporters, Mr Thompson is an intrepid deep-sea explorer whose feat of derring-do unveiled the secrets of the “Ship of Gold”. However, to the authorities and the investors who poured in millions of dollars into the search, he is little more than a swindler.

The tour of the artefacts – a potpourri of items dating back to the Gold Rush – is the latest chapter in the bizarre saga.

There were 425 people on board SS Central America, a side-wheel steamer when it found itself in the eye of a hurricane. Only 153 of the passengers – many of whom were miners who had struck gold – survived. Its loss triggered a national panic.

The ship lay at the bottom of the Atlantic until it was discovered in 1988 by Mr Thompson, an oceanographic engineer, who salvaged coins, gold bars and luggage from the vessel.

Mr Thompson had raised nearly $13 million (£11 million) from local investors to fund the use of a high-tech submarine and a team of historians, scientists and engineers.

Then things became complicated with the ship’s insurers claiming ownership of the trove, which triggered two rounds of expensive litigation that Mr Thompson won.

The gold was sold to a marketing group for $50 million but investors received nothing as Mr Thompson said the cash was swallowed up by the cost of the expedition and the legal battle.

Investors sued and Mr Thompson vanished in 2012, evading the authorities by staying in hotels under an assumed name and paying for everything in cash, rather than using a traceable credit card or bank account.

He was caught three years later and sentenced to two years in prison for failing to appear in court under a plea deal. But a condition of the deal was that Mr Thompson should say where the missing gold coins were to be found.

At one point Mr Thompson said the coins were in a blind trust in Belize, at other times he told the court he did not know, occasioning the legal impasse that has left him in jail for contempt of court and facing a daily fine of $1,000.

Meanwhile, as the fines rack up to more than $2 million, hundreds of artefacts have gone on display. Items include letters, a saloon sign, a pistol in its holster, clothing and a first edition of The Count of Monte Cristo.

They have already been seen by visitors to the Old West Show just outside Sacramento, California. The artefacts will tour across the country before being auctioned off in the autumn.

Meanwhile, Mr Thompson remains in legal limbo, with the judge insisting that he will remain in custody until he says where the coins are.