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Downfall: 426 people died when the SS "Central America" sank in 1857.
But the financial world lamented the loss of the cargo.
Photo: Royal Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
On September 12, 1857, the hope of New York bankers sank off the coast of Georgia.
The 90-meter-long paddle steamer SS "Central America" gets caught in a hurricane and sinks.
426 people are killed.
But in the financial world, the loss of shipping is a source of horror.
The boat carried between 15 and 20 tons of gold in the form of bars, coins or gold tinsel.
Much of it was intended for the ailing banks in New York, who wanted to use it to secure their loans and speculation.
Because just three weeks earlier, a single sentence from Ohio had been enough to dangerously shake the stock exchange prices on Wall Street.
On August 24th, the president of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company had declared his bank's insolvency in dry terms: "I have the unfortunate duty to find out that the company has stopped making payments," says bank chief Charles Stetson.
Up until that point in time, the house was actually considered a serious and reliable bank that - like many other financial institutions - financed the upswing of the young nation with loans and shares.
But the financial economy in the US had changed during the boom years of the past decade.
In the 1850s, hundreds of thousands of Europeans emigrated to America, where they hoped for a new, self-determined life.
The discovery of gold in California attracted even more adventurers.
Everyone dreamed of happiness and prosperity.
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