Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 5, 1990 TAG: 9004041249
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B6 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
Attorneys for the companies began introducing more than 200 news accounts into the federal trial record. Attorneys for the Columbus-America Discovery Group, salvagers of the wreck, objected to the documents claiming they were hearsay.
Columbus-America attorneys said the insurance companies were trying to use the news accounts as a substitute for private business records and that there were many inconsistencies and contradictions among the reports.
U.S. District Judge Richard B. Kellam allowed the documents to be introduced, but only to show that the ship sank on Sept. 12, 1857, and that it carried a cargo of gold.
The trial is to determine if the wreck was ever abandoned by the insurance companies. If the companies had given up all hope of recovering the gold coins and bars - valued at the time of the tragedy at $1.2 million - then Columbus-America would have sole title to the find. If the companies show they had a continued interest in the wreck, a portion of the treasure could be given to them by Kellam.
Columbus-America officials have estimated the current value of the gold at nearly $1 billion.
Columbus-America attorneys have argued the companies have no way of determining what portion of the ship's cargo was insured by the eight remaining companies and a consortium representing the insurance industry. James L. Chapman IV, lead attorney for the companies, told Kellam the issue was unimportant because the companies would work out the division of property among themselves.
During cross-examination of Thomas G. Thompson, president of Columbus-America, attorney Guilford Ware tried to get Thompson to admit that the gold was concentrated in one area of the wreck and that it appeared to have been packed in barrels and boxes.
"There was all kinds of debris in the wreck area. It would be speculation on my part to say they were part of any containers," Thompson said. He added that the group found gold from one end of the wreck to the other.
Much of the material about the recovery of the wreck is in sealed court documents. Columbus-America officials have said the information is confidential because two tons of gold remain on the ocean floor. The ton of gold already recovered is under the custody of the U.S. marshal.
The Central America went down in a hurricane about 160 miles off the South Carolina coast. It was en route from Panama to New York carrying gold and passengers from the California gold fields. The ship sank in a mile-and-a-half of water and was lost until Columbus-America used modern technology to locate the wreck, according to attorneys for the Ohio-based group.
About a ton of gold was removed from the wreck last summer using a remote-controlled submersible. Thompson said the 13-year search for the Central America has cost more than $10 million.
by CNB