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Random off topic.. but has anyone noticed that Tommy Thompson has been sitting in Jail for 6 years..
Thompson tracked down the sunken ship SS Central America, which went down with several thousand souls just before the Civil War, and then engineered the recovery of a fortune in gold coins... this happened in the 80's IIRC..
He wrote a book about it called The Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, which was one of my favorite non fiction books.
After he recovered the gold, several insurance companies laid claim to the recovered assets, even though they had done nothing to locate or recover the wreck.
Rather than hand it all over to the insurance companies, Thompson disappeared, allegedly with 500 gold coins.. he was apprehended in Florida 6 years ago, living incognito, but refused to answer questions about the 500 gold coins, so they jailed him for contempt, and are fining him $1000 a day..
It seems to me the punishment does not fit the crime. This is a brilliant engineer who spent his own time and money finding the wreck, and then inventing recovery methods that worked in 7000 ft of water, that did not exist at the time.. The insurance companies made a cash grab, and are basically getting away with it.. And it doesn't feel right to me.
Curious how you guys feel about it..
Thompson tracked down the sunken ship SS Central America, which went down with several thousand souls just before the Civil War, and then engineered the recovery of a fortune in gold coins... this happened in the 80's IIRC..
He wrote a book about it called The Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, which was one of my favorite non fiction books.
After he recovered the gold, several insurance companies laid claim to the recovered assets, even though they had done nothing to locate or recover the wreck.
Rather than hand it all over to the insurance companies, Thompson disappeared, allegedly with 500 gold coins.. he was apprehended in Florida 6 years ago, living incognito, but refused to answer questions about the 500 gold coins, so they jailed him for contempt, and are fining him $1000 a day..
It seems to me the punishment does not fit the crime. This is a brilliant engineer who spent his own time and money finding the wreck, and then inventing recovery methods that worked in 7000 ft of water, that did not exist at the time.. The insurance companies made a cash grab, and are basically getting away with it.. And it doesn't feel right to me.
Curious how you guys feel about it..