Rating: 
Summary: A Wonderful Read in Every Respect
Review: "Ship of Gold" is a wonderful read. What I most appreciated was its approach to adventure and science on the same intense level. This is a book that will inspire you- not to go searching for sunken treasure, but to set your mind on a goal and do whatever it takes to reach it. Tommy Thompson had to ask himself a huge question. How can a 150 year old ship of gold be found in 8,000 feet of water, and how can its treasure possibly be salvaged safely and effectivly from that depth? The answer lies in robotics and engineering. Thompson, a trained engineer, had to pull together a team of dedicated workers and invent the technology no one had sucsessfully been able to make before. Throw in a rival treasure hunting team following them at sea looking for the same wreck, and you have a story of unparalelled adventure and wonder, every bit as exciting and page-turning as it is informative and facsinating. On top of that, Kinder has a written a fantastic account of the ships final days and moments, which he splits up and weaves in between chapters on Thompson and his growing ideas for finding the wreck. The paralel stories grow together as the book progresses, placing us inside Thompsons head to understand his desire and iron will for finding the Ship of Gold. This is a book that should not be missed- please do yourself a favor and read it.
Rating:
Summary: You will surprise yourself with how much you enjoy this!
Review: I don't know which is more fascinating, the story of the steamship Central America sinking amid a violent storm; or the story of the engineer extraordinaire who resolved to recover it's California gold rush cargo that had remained undisturbed for almost 125 years under two miles of ocean. Fortunately, Gary Kinder chose to tell both tales and they are equally engrossing Almost by definition, disasters at sea make for interesting reading, and the foundering of the Central America ranks among the worst maritime losses in American history. She went down in water over 10,000 feet deep, lost for over a century. Kinder relates her final voyage, illuminating the heroism of her captain, crew and passengers in a style that nearly makes the reader weep as her decks vanish into the sea. That alone would make this book worthy of note in any list of ship histories, but Tommy Thompson determined to find the wreck and to recover a treasure that many experts considered to be unrecoverable. It takes a talented writer to make an engineer seem interesting, or maybe the engineer just has to combine an almost Edison-like gift for innovation with a bit of treasure hunter to be interesting. First you have to find the ship, then you have to figure out how to bring it's cargo back to the surface - no mean feat at those depths. But Thompson wasn't content with simply finding and recovering the gold bullion and coins that went down with the Central America, he wanted to bring the artifacts up as cleanly and completely as possible. Where others might have been content to just sink a robot-controlled bucket down to the wreck and scoop up what ever could be found, Thompson and his crew invented new technologies that brought coins up with so little damage that appraisers at first questioned whether they were from a shipwreck. Thompson and company face one challenge after another, engineering problems, technologic problems, financial problems and even the drama provided by rival treasure hunters. You might be surprised how difficult it can be to put this book down.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding from a former sea farer
Review: I have travelled half the world by ship and this read is true to the fact. A great read even for the non sailors. The story transitions smoothly and will keep you reading on.
Rating:
Summary: Ship of Gold (in the Deep Blue Sea)
Review: I highly recommend this book as a clearly written, exciting description of the technical aspects of the search for, and discovery of the wreck of the Central America. Gary Kinder has avoided making an interesting story dull by use of a conversational tone, and an interesting juxtaposition of a description of the sinking of the ship,and the description of the organization and description of the Columbus-America partnerships discovery of the wreck 130 years later. I expected a fairly dry recitation of the facts, and was pleasantly surprised to have an almost couldn't put it down book. While a little more space could have been devoted to the artifacts recovered, overall the book is an excellent example of non-fiction writing and enjoyable to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Great story, excellent writing, and NO PHOTOS!
Review: I picked up a copy of this book new from the bargain rack in a local store, not really knowing what to expect. Kinder writes very well, explaining clearly any number of historical circumstances, as well as modern engineering and conceptual activities. The ship's history, and that of its passengers and captain make especially compelling reading. The team and the work that went into financing, searching for, discovering, documenting, and recovering items from the wreck may serve as a blueprint for someone interested in starting up any sort of business enterprise - Kinder's writing reveals principles of entrepreneurship as they actually functioned in the Columbus-America project. For me, the downside was the lack of historical photos and images from the search/wreck/recovery-process. Nevertheless, I think this is a book I will keep and probably reread.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and inspirational!
Review: I wish I had another one as good waiting!
Think you have problems with some of your projects! Wow! From beginning to end, this team faced and solved huge problems to meet their goal. It's nice to see such an example of persistence and creativity. Better than "Perfect Storm!"
Rating:
Summary: Great story, excellent writing, and NO PHOTOS!
Review: If ever there was a book that cried out for photos, this one is it and yet no photos. I know there is now another book providing the photographic record, but they should have been in this volume. This is a huge and glaring mistake and only the skilled writer saved the book from disaster when the enginering must be verbally explained. I felt a number of minor characters in the story of the ship wreck could have been cut without any great loss to the central story which tends to bog down in detail about the disaster. The detail is needed in the recovery phase but not is telling the history and some drama was lost because of it. Over all a compelling read and well worth the time.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read Book for Every Engineer or Engineering Student
Review: The title sounds weird but I really mean it. As a educator of pre-engineering students at a local two-year college I can think of no better book to introduce a student to what a truly gifted engineer does. If you have a friend, child, collegue, whatever who has a bit of engineer in them, get them this book and have them read it. If you are an engineer or love to tinker on old cars, planes, trains, etc. you won't be able to put this down. The disaster and man vs. nature storyline is enough to hook anyone but for those with a technical or mechanical bent, the descriptions of the problems encountered and surmounted in recovering the gold take the book beyond almost every other recent work in the genre.
Rating:
Summary: Absorbing
Review: This book had a fantastic layout. The historical accounts mixed with the ongoing events of an incredible engineering feat. The tension of the searches, and the battles of competition during the search. This is a must read and will put analytical people in awe..
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Ship wreck story
Review: This book has it all, a treasure seeker, a ship of vast wealth, a set of sympatheic passengers. And best of all an author who can weave the tale throughout the whole book. We get the whole story but the timeline is intricitly intervoven though the book. It's one of those beach reads, or winter by a fire with a hot drink that gets cold before you remember that its there again. The fire dying without you noticing, the sun going down and the kids have run off a mile down the beach before you look up. Its better than any fictional tale.
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