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Purser Hull's Master Keys, Gold Room, S.S. Central America Treasure [153322]

Currency:USD Category:Artifacts / Shipwreck Artifacts Start Price:5,000.00 USD Estimated At:10,000.00 USD and UP
Purser Hull's Master Keys, Gold Room, S.S. Central America Treasure [153322]
SOLD
86,000.00USDto E********s+ buyer's premium (17,200.00)
This item SOLD at 2022 Dec 03 @ 13:12UTC-8 : PST/AKDT
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A ring of three brass keys with a brass key tag recovered in 2014 from the purser's safe found in the debris field of the S.S. Central America shipwreck. Clearly engraved in script with // S.S. Central America / Purser Hall / S. L. // Blank on reverse. Brass key tag: 4 7/8" x 1 5/8". These were the keys issued to the ship's purser, Edward W. Hull, who did not survive the shipwreck. According to one historian the initials "S. L." could stand for "Ship's Locker" which was the main room where valuables were kept. The size of the main key on this ring is remarkable, and as such, notable. It is approximately four times larger than the key that fits a standard padlock of the period, such as that in S.S. Central America inventory #15883, our inventory #153303. The key is also three times the diameter and twice the size of a First Cabin key. As such, this key is probably the key that opened the most valuable room in the ship, the room that held a treasure for the future, now known as the Ship of Gold and what we call today, the Gold Room.

Date: 1857
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Provenance: SS Central America Collection