The Arctic Discoverer

The R/V Arctic Discoverer

According to Richard Jacquot, the R/V Arctic Discoverer originally entered service as the A.T. Cameron in 1958. She was commissioned by the Fisheries Research Board of Canada and built by Marine Industries Limited of Montreal. It was named after Alexander Thomas Cameron, the board director. Featuring several laboratories for the examination of a wide variety of marine life, the ship was also used for testing new ocean research technology and fishing.

After 23 years of service, the vessel was decommissioned to make way for a more technologically advanced fleet. She was soon sold to a Newfoundland fuel company. Under new ownership, she was repurposed as a research and patrol vessel and rechristened the Arctic Ranger.

In 1985, Tommy Thompson, a distinguished marine engineer from the Battelle Institute, established the Columbus America Discovery Group. Comprised of a multidisciplinary team of experts, the organization aimed to recover the wreckage of the S.S. Central America, lost at sea in 1857.

The expedition launched in 1987. After an initial discovery at 8,000 feet was revealed to be the wrong ship, the group shifted strategy. During the 1987-88 winter season, they purchased the Arctic Ranger, which underwent significant technical renovations and was renamed the R/V Arctic Discoverer before returning to the search.

The Ship of Gold and the Sinking of the SS Central America

Under the command of William Lewis Herndon, the ship departed Aspinwall (modern-day Colón, Panama) on September 3, 1857, bound for New York City with 477 passengers and 101 crew members. After a scheduled stop in Havana, the vessel continued its northward journey, carrying 9.1 tons (20,000 lbs.) of gold recovered during the California Gold Rush.

On September 9, a breeze began kicking up swells. There was no alarm since the ship was large and well-equipped for one, even if a storm was coming. By the following day, the ship was caught in a Category 2 hurricane off the coast of the Carolinas. On September 11, high winds and heavy seas shredded her sails and began taking on water, threatening the failure of the ship’s boiler. By noon, her boiler could no longer maintain a fire. As steam pressure plummeted, both bilge pumps shut down.

The ship’s flag was inverted, signifying her need for immediate help, to signal a passing ship, but no one came to her rescue. A bucket brigade was formed that spent the night in a losing battle against the rising waters. In the eye of the storm, during the calm of the storm, an attempt was made to restart the ship’s boiler to no avail. The second half of the storm then struck, carrying the powerless ship, which was on the verge of foundering.

The following day, the brig Marine, a vessel with ten crew members and its captain, appeared over the horizon and began rescue efforts. One hundred passengers, primarily women and children, were transferred in lifeboats. By nightfall, the SS Central America had sunk off the coast of North Carolina, taking with it 425 lives. A Norwegian ship, Ellen, rescued an additional 50 from the waters. Another three were picked up over a week later in a lifeboat. Commander William Lewis Herndon, a distinguished officer who had served during the Mexican–American War and captain of the Central America, went down with his ship.

Along with the unprecedented number of lives lost, gold valued at approximately $8,000,000 (2025 value of $2.4 billion) was lost with the ship. Not only that, the ship itself was valued at $140,000 (2025 value of $4.8 million), substantially more than those lost in other disasters of the period. This monetary loss contributed to the Panic of 1857.

The Expedition

In the summer of 1988, Thompson and his team embarked on a mission to locate the lost treasure of the Central America. Using the Arctic Discoverer as their expedition vessel and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named Nemo, the wreck was found. The gold recovered was valued at approximately $100-150 million. Weighing in at 80 lb, one recovered gold ingot fetched a staggering $8 million, setting a record as the most valuable currency in the world at the time. According to the Tampa Bay Times, Thompson did not receive legal authorization to salvage the wreck until 2003, leading to decades-long legal proceedings.

Descendants of the insurance companies that had paid out claims over 130 years earlier filed lawsuits to claim their share. A total of 39 insurance companies brought legal action against the Columbus-America Discovery Group.

Over the next two years, the R/V Arctic Discoverer continued its operations at the shipwreck site, uncovering gold, as well as new species of octopus and sharks. Despite their work’s scientific and historical significance, the group faced nearly a decade of intense legal battles and mounting legal fees. Ultimately, the Columbus-America Discovery Group was awarded 92% of the treasure, with the remaining portion allocated to investors.

Tommy Thompson’s Defrauding, Arrest, and Incarceration

In 2000, Tommy Thompson secured a buyer and sold 532 gold bars and thousands of coins to a gold marketing group for $52 million, but neither his investors nor crew had seen any of it. In 2009, he had an offshore account valued at $4.16 million in the Cook Islands. In 2012, Thompson went into hiding along with the remainder of the gold until U.S. Marshals arrested him in 2015 at a West Palm Beach, Florida, hotel. The gold he had hidden away, though, was never recovered.

In April 2015, Thompson pleaded guilty to failing to appear in court for a prior case. Subsequently, he received a two-year jail sentence and was fined $250,000. The plea agreement required Thompson to surrender 500 gold coins recovered from the wreck of the Central America, a request he declined, citing short-term memory and inability to access the missing gold. U.S. Marshals believed Thompson had buried the gold like a pirate of olden days, after finding empty tubes in his abandoned mansion. He was imprisoned indefinitely until he surrendered the location of the remaining gold.

A jury awarded investors $19.4 million in compensatory damages. This included $3.2 million to the Dispatch Printing Company, which had invested $1 million of the total $22 million, and $16.2 million to the court-appointed receiver on behalf of the other investors. In 2014, Odyssey Marine Exploration was tasked with excavating the shipwreck and, if possible, salvaging more gold, to recover some of the money promised to the investors. This recovery yielded another 15,500 gold and silver coins, 45 solid gold bars, and a vast collection of raw nuggets, gold dust, and jewelry.

While attorney Steven Tigges noted that Thompson’s freedom depended entirely on the return of the missing funds, the legal stalemate finally shifted on February 4, 2025. Judge Algenon Marbley terminated the civil contempt charge, concluding that additional jail time would no longer force Thompson’s cooperation. After serving more than ten years, Tommy Thompson was released from prison on March 6, 2026.

The Fate of the Arctic Discoverer

As for the Arctic Discoverer, what remained of it was auctioned off and sits derelict at the docks at Green Cove Springs, Fla. On May 11, 2013, U.S. Marshals sold the old ship for $50,000. Salvaging crews found documents, ship logs, photographs, and other artifacts on board. The company auctioned off most of the artifacts, including the ship’s bell, equipment, and helm.

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