Vintage Cuban Cigars Among Many Treasures from The Famous Sunken S.S. Central America to be Auctioned March 4th & 5th
Reno, NV, February 21, 2023 -- Three dozen 166-year-old Cuban cigars will be in an auction of never-before-offered, historic California Gold Rush-era artifacts recovered from the 1857 sinking of the fabled “Ship of Gold,” the S.S. Central America. The auction will be held on March 4 and 5, 2023 in Reno, Nevada and online by Holabird Western Americana Collections, LLC (www.HolabirdWesternAmericana.com).
“Thirty-seven Cuban cigars, apparently brought on board when the ship stopped in Havana on the voyage from Panama to New York, were found in a passenger’s trunk on the Atlantic Ocean seabed in 1991. Some of their wrappers are still in excellent condition. This is the first time these vintage cigars are being offered,” said Fred Holabird, President of Holabird Western Americana Collections.
“Imagine having a Havana-rolled cigar made when Abraham Lincoln was a Senator,” said Dwight Manley, Managing Partner of California Gold Marketing Group, the consignor of the sunken treasure.
The S.S. Central America was carrying tons of Gold Rush treasure from San Francisco and the northern California area when she sank 7,200 feet deep in the Atlantic off the North Carolina coast in a hurricane while on a voyage from Aspinwall, Panama to New York City in September 1857. Recovery from the shipwreck site occurred in several stages between 1988-1991 and again in 2014.
The cigars were discovered in 1991 in the recovered trunk of first-class passenger John Dement, a merchant, miner, and military veteran from Oregon City, Oregon, packed next to the oldest known Gold Rush miner's work pants that sold for a record $114,000 in the first auction of S.S. Central America artifacts this past December.
“The cigars are a true wonder, no doubt, and it is quite counterintuitive that they would survive 134 years in the deep sea. A real curiosity,” said Bob Evans, Chief Scientist of the S.S. Central America Project who was on each of the recovery missions.
How did they survive?
“It is cold on the S.S. Central America shipwreck site, a very consistent 2 to 3 degrees centigrade (about 37 degrees Fahrenheit). It is an environment with no light, high saline content, and around 3,200 pounds of pressure per square inch. Essentially, it is a dark, high-pressure, salty, deep-sea refrigerator,” he explained.
“The passengers’ trunks found in the debris field around the main shipwreck site were not breached or opened, and although not watertight, the leather shell of the trunks limited water circulation. Soon after sinking, all the oxygen was used up, and anaerobic conditions prevailed for most of the 130+ years before two trunks were recovered, including Mr. Dement’s,” said Evans.
“When we opened the Dement trunk we saw a few dozen cigars that had been placed on top of clothes and other items. Soggy and limp, the cigars were carefully placed on a fiberglass screen and slowly freeze-dried over the next few months to preserve them.”
The March 4 and 5 auction of recovered artifacts also features California Gold Rush jewelry; men’s and women’s clothing including an early Brooks Brothers shirt; an 1851 Colt Navy pistol; bottles and tableware; and a large gold ingot from a prominent San Francisco assayer of the era.
There is also a mid-19th century daguerreotype metal plate photograph of a young woman that the scientific mission recovery team nicknamed, “Mona Lisa of the Deep,” after retrieving the photo in 2014. It was discovered on the seabed in a scattered pile of the ship’s coal.
“The auction also offers recovered coal and portions of the S.S. Central America itself, including a porthole from what is believed to be Captain William Lewis Herndon’s topside cabin,” said Manley.
The tragedy of the S.S. Central America sinking took the lives of 425 of the ship’s 578 passengers and crewmembers, and the loss of the gold cargo was a major factor in the economically devastating financial Panic of 1857 in the United States.
Insurance claims for the loss were paid in the 1850s and the company that discovered and retrieved the treasure starting in 1988 settled with the insurers and their successors in 1992. With court approval, California Gold Marketing Group acquired clear title to all of that remaining treasure in 1999 as well as all the items recovered in 2014.
For additional information about the auction, visit Holabird Western Americana Collections of Reno, Nevada at www.HolabirdAmericana.com, call 775-851-1859, or email info@holabirdamericana.com.
Reviews
Comments
Most Recent Articles
- Mar 26, 2024 Computer Numerical Control (CNC) Collets Market Size, Share & Insights 2024-32 by Nathan lyonn
- Mar 16, 2024 Help your readers, solve their problems by charles hensen hensen
- Mar 15, 2024 Automated Teller Machine (ATM) Outsourcing Market Size & Share Analysis 2024-32 by Nathan lyonn
- Mar 6, 2024 Supercomputer Market Size, Industry Share & Trends Analysis 2024-32 by Nathan lyonn
- Mar 5, 2024 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Market Size, Global Growth | Research 2024-32 by Nathan lyonn
Most Viewed Articles
- 2848 hits Activate www.youtube.com/activate on Roku and Kodi Platform by rokucomlinkhelp
- 2603 hits sling tv sound but no picture by elisabeth warner
- 1859 hits 2 Important Points to Consider When Hiring to a Family Photographer by William Smith
- 1752 hits Yotta new game : Mafia City 'Clan Is Family, Family Backs One Another' by Asuna xing
- 1670 hits Concediti ogni secondo mentre sei in discoteca a Barcellona by NANCY SMITH
Popular Articles
In today’s competitive world, one must be knowledgeable about the latest online business that works effectively through seo services....
76866 Views
Are you caught in between seo companies introduced by a friend, researched by you, or advertised by a particular site? If that is the...
31908 Views
Walmart is being sued by a customer alleging racial discrimination. The customer who has filed a lawsuit against the retailer claims that it...
12036 Views
If you have an idea for a new product, you can start by performing a patent search. This will help you decide whether your idea could become the...
10199 Views
Statistics
Members | |
---|---|
Members: | 13874 |
Publishing | |
---|---|
Articles: | 58,269 |
Categories: | 202 |
Online | |
---|---|
Active Users: | 517 |
Members: | 6 |
Guests: | 511 |
Bots: | 4511 |
Visits last 24h (live): | 2543 |
Visits last 24h (bots): | 16595 |