Photo Finish

aguerreotypes belonging to passengers who lost their lives in a notorious 1857 reports. Bound out of Panama for New York City, SS sank in a storm 150 miles off South Carolina. Aboard were miners and their families returning from the California gold fields laden with tons of gold coins, ingots, and nuggets. Of 400-plus passengers, perhaps 153 survived, but the loot that earned the sobriquet “Ship of Gold” went to the bottom. In 1988, investors began underwriting searches for the wreck—until the lead researcher landed in jail, claiming ignorance of the gold’s whereabouts. In 2014, salvage efforts resumed and now a different treasure—glass-plate photographs depicting miners and their families—has been brought to the surface from a mile and a half down.