Treasure Reading DIVE INTO A STORY OF FORGOTTEN BRAVERY AND SUNKEN RICHES by Ben Chadwick "Men have always pondered how they will act under fire, and mostly the reality when it comes is far more sober and sickening than imagined, and the acts are much less quick and noble." -- Gary Kinder, Ship of Gold on the Deep Blue Sea The terms "noble" or "heroic" usually strike corny notes in our hearts, don't they? Honestly, what kind of unfit-for-genetic-propagation moron would let himself die to save the lives of others, to protect people he doesn't know and probably wouldn't like? The legend that "the captain always goes down with the ship" sounds like a silly sacrifice to Poseidon or mindless macho flummery ... What kind of neo-Hellenist crackbrain would take it seriously? One such crackbrain was Captain William Lewis Herndon. With admiration, and not mockery, we watch as he surfs the sinking SS Central America down to Davy Jones's Locker. Admiration, because Herndon had the balls to take responsibility for all the huddled masses on his vessel, and that meant preserving order for as long as possible, despite knowing he'd drown. Herndon managed to guide the rescue operations right to the very end, commanding all the men on the ship to work the pumps, assist the women and children, and to cast their heavy bags of gold into the sea. Without his leadership, the ship would have undoubtedly flopped right to the bottom in a matter of hours, not days. As a result he managed to save a quarter of the lives on board. Considering that every other ship on the Atlantic coast was wrecked as well, this is no small achievement. Gary Kinder's Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea recounts the story of the Central America. First, the 1857 departure, filled to the brim with gold rush success stories and rejects; then the surprise hurricane that wrecked it; then its recovery and the final arrival of its booty in Norfolk in 1989. The bulk of the book is concerned with Tommy Thompson, the engineer who steered the recovery, and the trials of his Columbus-America Discovery Group. A biography of Thompson's early life takes us from his high school engineering genius -- building amphibious cars and so forth -- and quirky college behavior. After college he works for sci-tech firms and underwater treasure hunters, and eventually finds his life's challenge in the SS Central America and its 21 tons of sunken gold. ("Underwater Archaeologists" had searched for the Central America and never located it.) Ultimately Tommy designs some kind of submersible Swiss Army Knife featuring video cameras, grasping claws, Dustbusters, cork-screws, etc., and through some clever engineering, the gold is removed while the archaeological value of the site is preserved. The book is quite interesting for a number of reasons. It's written above the bestseller level and below the academic level; the result is an interesting story chock full of information, all of which occasionally makes for a gripping action story. Other times the book is bogged down by Kinder's over-detailing; he followed Thompson for 10 years and almost all of it is in the book. It is tough reading the 80 pages or so about the stockholders, but the promise of adventure remains right around the corner. For the most part, Kinder delivers. Anyone with an interest in underwater archaeology or shipwrecks can learn plenty from this book. My favorite fact: to gain salvage rights, one must "sue the vessel." Thus a case title might be Chadwick Sackpillage Archaeology v. the Wreck of the USS Buoyant. At times, Kinder's sycophantic praise for Thompson suggests a sort of Smithers/Burns-type relationship, and it is difficult to separate the facts about Thompson's character from mere worshipful hype. Though Thompson's creativity in designing his recovery vessel is admirable, the readers never learn exactly how he did it. The technical information is proprietary and so readers must suffer from Kinder's (and the C-ADG attorney's) excruciatingly tantalizing obfuscations. Tommy is no slouch by any means, but Captain Herndon's bravery is much more straightforward, and he is thus the true hero of this book. Herndon appears particularly respectable among his colleagues in leadership. He stubbornly maintained control until swallowed by the sea; compare this to three other venerable "captains": that of the Titanic, that of the Exxon Valdez, and our current commander-in-chief, Bill Clinton. The HMS Titanic's Captain Edward Smith was a pathetic feeb who lost his mind at the first hint of trouble. Captain Joseph Hazelwood traded all the wildlife in Prince William Sound and the careers of every fisherman in Alaska for a few beers. And our president continues to drag my Democratic party down, by not having the responsibility to Nixon his carcass overboard. Herndon, though, was a noble leader who did everything he could for the lives of his passengers. Did morality, accountability, and heroism go permanently out of style just 50 years after the wreck, or was Herndon an exceptional man by any standard? Either way, his courage should be, but probably won't be, a lesson for all times. So what did Captain Herndon get for his troubles? He got a Northern Virginia town named for him (coincidentally my hometown) and he got eaten by aquatic scavengers. He got praised for a few months. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper wrote this of him in 1857: "There cannot be a doubt about the fact that the name of Captain Herndon will ever be held in grateful remembrance among all the heroes who have achieved triumphs upon the sea." Maybe there's a plaque or even a statue of him somewhere. That about wraps it up for W. L. Herndon. Kinder's book over-praises Tommy Thompson and doesn't really give Captain Herndon his due, but this doesn't compromise the value of the book. If you're into tales of gallant leadership, archaeological engineering, or have an insatiable appetite for aquatic disasters, try coming down from Titanic with this book. You won't be disappointed.

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