Sunken Ship Is Treasure For TV Documentary

``Discovery Sunday: Treasures of a Lost Voyage,'' 6 and 10 p.m. Sunday, Discovery Channel/cable.

``Appalling Calamity!'' shrieked a headline in The New York Herald on Sept. 19, 1857, as it reported the sinking of the S.S. Central America, which went down off the Carolina coast on Sept. 12, with the loss of 400 passengers and more than 3 tons of gold from the California gold rush. (News didn't travel so fast in those days!)

Now the saga of the S.S. Central America comes to television in a two-hour special that cable's Discovery Channel is airing at 6 p.m. Sunday.

It's not exactly news that the S.S. Central America - and its gold - has been discovered at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. That occurred in June of 1986. But this special will incorporate satellite-delivered footage from the vessel as explorations continue, along with fascinating background on the ill-fated ship, its crew and passengers and the research that went into finding it and rescuing the gold.

The S.S. Central America sailed from Panama on Sept. 3, 1857, carrying a great many prosperous men (and their wives, some of whom were surely San Francisco dance-hall girls) who had made their fortunes in the California gold rush of 1849. They were headed for New York City. But on the sixth day of the voyage, the side-wheel steamer ran head-on into a hurricane, one that was similar in its track and timing to Hurricane Hugo, which ripped through Charleston on Sept. 22, 1989.

For three days, the 500 passengers and crew battled the storm, bailing out the rising water for more than 30 hours.

On Sept. 10, a leak was discovered and the fires in the boilers were extinguished by the rising water. Capt. William Lewis Herndon called on every man aboard to assist in bailing out the ship. One surivivor reported that all hands, passengers and crew went to work bailing as none of the steam pumps would work. ``All of us knew how desperate was our situation and everyone worked with a will,'' he later wrote.

About noon, reported another survivor, ``the vessel suddenly careened to one side and, looking toward our porthole, I noticed that it was entirely underwater.''

The wife of a minstrel comedian reported: ``On Friday the sea broke over us in avalanches, completely swamping the cabins and staterooms and the vessel would be so completely buried it was dark.

Still another reported that ``as the night grew darker, rockets of distress were set off. Blankets and rugs were packed about the smoke-stacks and hatches to keep out the water, but to no avail.''

On Saturday morning, Sept.12, Herndon concluded the ship would sink unless the storm abated and by noon a small sailing vessel from Boston, the brig Marine, sailed into view. Despite the storm, lifeboats were lowered and all afternoon successive trips were made between the steamer and the brig to rescue passengers, children and women first, and then some male passengers and crew.

A Sacramento judge, Alonzo Monson reported that ``on the deck of the Marine the water was a foot and a half deep and the sea was rising violently over her deck. My first impression upon getting on board was that it would have been just as safe to have stayed aboard the Central America.''

At 6:30 p.m. on that Saturday, a schooner, the El Dorado, sailed near the Central America but was unable to rescue anyone due to the ship's crippled condition and the lack of lifeboats. About 8 p.m., Herndon took a position on the wheelhouse with his second officer and fired rockets downward, the usual signal, to tell the Marine and the El Dorado that the S.S. Central America was sinking rapidly. All those who had been rescued, and were aboard the Marine, understood the signal - and nearly all had husbands or friends on the sinking ship. Just after 8 p.m., the S.S. Central America sank.

Forty-nine passengers were picked up floating on the water that night and the next morning by a Norwegian vessel, The Ellen, making a total of 152 saved.

Herndon was commended posthumously for his courage. A monument was erected to his memory at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis.

(As a side note, a book Herndon wrote about a trip down the Amazon River, is said to have inspired Samuel Clemens - Mark Twain - to become a steamboat pilot.)

The Columbus America Discovery Group, which researched finding and exploring the sunken ship, estimates it probably took the S.S. Central America 18 minutes to reach Blake Ridge, the final resting place, approximately a mile and a half beneath the surface of the Atlantic.