In some ways the most famous of the ships which carried California gold from Panama to New York was the SS Central America which sank in a hurricane in 1857 off the coast of South Carolina, with the loss of 425 lives and 21 tons of gold. This was the worst peacetime maritime disaster in the history of the USA. In 1989 the gold from the Central America was recovered from 8000ft of water in a spectacular operation.
Although the SS Central America apparently never docked in Kingston she is typical of the many other 'gold ships' from the Isthmus that did in the early 1850s
