I just finished a book that was a New York Times best seller almost 20 years ago, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea.
In 1857, the steamship SS Central America in a hurricane sank in 7,200 feet of water 160 miles off the coast of South Carolina. Before the Panama Canal, travelers from California bound for the east coast would take a ship to Panama, cross the isthmus and board another ship at Colón on the Caribbean side for the trip up to the east coast. In addition to the passengers carrying a small fortune in gold from their times in the California gold fields, the ship was carrying tons of gold coins minted in San Francisco and gold ingots to the east coast banks.