Submarine used in the recovery of artifacts from the S. S. Central America to be auctioned March 4-5

RENO, Nev. - Feb. 24, 2023 - PRLog -- The specially created 12,000-pound robot submarine nicknamed "Nemo" that now-jailed treasure hunter Tommy Thompson used three decades ago to locate a fortune in California Gold Rush sunken treasure is for sale.

The remotely-operated underwater vehicle is one of the highlights featured in an auction with other never-before-offered historic artifacts recovered from the legendary "Ship of Gold," the S.S. Central America. The auction will be conducted in Reno, Nevada and online by Holabird Western Americana Collections LLC (HolabirdAmericana.com) on March 4 and 5, 2023.

"Nemo's ingenuity is so exceptional that it could have been made for James Bond. It is such a sophisticated device that its precision robotic arms and suction tubes could carefully pick up a quarter-million-dollar rare gold coin from the ocean floor without damaging it," said Dwight Manley, Managing Partner of the California Gold Marketing Group which owns the six-ton sub and the recovered treasures.

"The skilled scientist and engineers who built it even developed a silicone injection system that could retrieve entire groupings of coins or other objects from this fabulous time capsule of the California Gold Rush, and then meticulously clean up any remaining residue to protect the underwater environment," added Manley.

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 Panama to New York City in September 1857.

"Nemo was named in honor of the great fictional ship captain imagined by author Jules Verne. It was deliberately designed to handle both heavy and delicate tasks, excavating and dismantling the collapsed pile of the shipwreck, as well as gently picking up coins where a single scratch could cause enormous loss of value," explained said Bob Evans, Chief Scientist of the S.S. Central America Project who was on each of the recovery missions.

All items in the auction are being offered unreserved. For additional information, visit Holabird Western Americana Collections of Reno, Nevada at www.HolabirdAmericana.com, call 775-851-1859, or email at info@holabirdamericana.com.