‘Ship of Gold’ treasure hunter released from prison; 500 coins remain unaccounted for

A former deep-sea treasure hunter who spent more than a decade in prison after refusing to disclose the whereabouts of missing gold coins is now out of prison

A former deep-sea treasure hunter who made one of the great shipwreck discoveries in American history and spent more than a decade in jail after refusing to disclose the whereabouts of some of its missing gold coins is now out of prison, federal records show.

Tommy Thompson, who in 1988 located what was known as the Ship of Gold off the coast of South Carolina, was released last Wednesday, according to federal Bureau of Prisons records reviewed by The Associated Press.

Thompson, an Ohio-born research scientist, was hailed as a hero after finding the S.S. Central America and its thousands of pounds of sunken treasure that sat at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for more than 150 years.

But in the decades that followed, he battled with investors who accused him of cheating them out of millions and then spent years on the run as a fugitive before being sent to prison over rebuffing court orders while contending he didn't know what happened to 500 coins minted from the ship's gold.

The Central America was filled with a big haul from the California Gold Rush when it sank in a hurricane in 1857. Four hundred and twenty-five people drowned, and thousands of pounds of gold were lost, contributing to an economic panic.