1268

Dorsey Gold Bag and Passenger Receipt, S.S. Central America Treasure [158896]

Currency:USD Category:Artifacts / Shipwreck Artifacts Start Price:2,500.00 USD Estimated At:5,000.00 USD and UP
Dorsey Gold Bag and Passenger Receipt, S.S. Central America Treasure [158896]
SOLD
6,750.00USD+ (1,350.00) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2022 Dec 03 @ 18:25UTC-8 : PST/AKDT
SHIPPING & HANDLING: The customer is responsible for all shipping and packaging charges. We offer shipping service as a convenience to our buyers. Items are not shipped until the invoice and shipping charges are completely paid. Shipping costs will be calculated and billed separately after your items have been paid for. Purchases will be shipped via our approved, insured carriers: FedEx, UPS, USPS or DHL. Pick up is available from our Reno office, once you have received your invoice post auction
This is an important trio of original artifacts from the S.S. Central America treasure. Lawrence (or Laurence) Dorsey, a passenger on the S.S. Central America, first purchased a Forward cabin ticket for the voyage to New York from San Francisco. Shortly after, he upgraded his passage to Second Cabin. The record reflects this with a Forward cabin receipt where his name is crossed out, and a new ticket for the Second Cabin was issued, as second Cabin, ticket #15. Both of these receipts were carefully conserved by the Northeast Document Conservation Service in Andover about 2018. Dorsey's gold bag (poke) was found within Purser Hull's safe, recovered in 2014, along with all of the passenger receipts. When I first looked at them in 2018, it was a surprise that the documents could be preserved, and for the first time, documents from a 150+ year old sunken ship were professionally conserved. Dorsey's poke has his name inscribed in manuscript across the face in big letters in his own handwriting. By the size of the poke, I'd estimate at least 100-150 ounces of gold were in it when it was opened for gold removal in 2014 by Court order. The surprise, though, came with research on Dorsey. The newspapers had reported him lost at sea, and originally from Pennsylvania. he must have been a quiet man, keeping to himself, as there is no discussion of him in the firsthand accounts of the survivors. We couldn't find him in California, and he was not listed in any main-stream large city directories of the period before 1857 (New York, Boston, etc.), nor was he located in newspaper articles or advertisements. But low and behold, Dorsey popped up in 1867 when he filed for US citizenship on a form since digitized with his signature -- the same exact signature as on the poke (copy included). Mr. Dorsey survived! It is quite possible that Dorsey walked off the ship in complete desolation, not talking to anyone, and disappeared up to his farm in Easton, Washington County along the Hudson River near Saratoga National Park today. Though only about 150 ounces for this gold bag (were there more?), it would be equivalent to about $105,000 today, according to the inflation calculator.

Date:
Country (if not USA):
State:
City:
Provenance: SS Central America Collection