Come along on the search for the greatest shipwreck treasure of the Civil War era . . . lost in a hurricane in the deep Atlantic.

In the tradition of Ship of Gold and Shadow Divers, this book tells of a remarkable ship — the “Forest Gump” of Civil War steamships — and the equally fascinating story of the search by Greg Stemm and John Morris, two modern pioneers of shipwreck exploration, as they attempt to locate this elusive ship, sunk in 1865 in a deadly storm somewhere south of Cape Hatteras.

The reason for the arduous hunt: reports that the steamship’s cargo, bound for Southern markets after the Civil War, included $400,000 in gold and silver coins. They knew the tens of thousands of coins from the mid-1800s, if found, would be of heart-stopping value to today’s collectors.

The SS Republic had a fascinating history. She had survived three previous hurricanes and had transported mercenaries to topple Central American governments. In the Civil War, she served on both sides. Captured in New Orleans at war’s outbreak, she was outfitted as a Confederate blockade runner. Recaptured by the North, she became a Union gunship — and alternate flagship for Admiral Farragut in his Mississippi campaign to capture Vicksburg.

In the thrilling discovery of the ship in 2003 by Stemm and Morris’s Odyssey Marine Exploration, the long-time partners found the fulfillment of their long-time dream: thousands of glittering coins strewn across the ocean floor.

More than 51,000 coins have been recovered, creating tremendous excitement for collectors around the world. The total collection is valued at over $75 million — one of the most valuable collections of U.S. gold and silver coins ever found in a shipwreck. The rarest single coin brought to the surface is valued at more than half a million dollars.

The amazing story has been featured in Civil War Gold, a National Geographic Special broadcast nationally on PBS, as well as in news & entertainment shows from Good Morning America to Oprah, and in many articles from Preservation magazine to the New York Times.

Now the fabulous tale of this Civil War-era shipwreck, hidden for 138 years on the ocean floor, is told for the first time in book form-—in a thrilling nautical yarn of immense risk and even greater rewards.