What the Women Survivors Told Reporters in 1857 (from pages 55-68 of “Ship of Gold”)
“Many of the women traveled with a great deal of money they had not registered with the purser. All of them were now advised not to carry more than two $20 gold pieces with them. Two women retrieved a satchel from their stateroom and upon returning to the cabin, opened the satchel, and weeping, shook $11,000 in gold onto the floor. Through tears, they said that anyone who wanted the money could take what they pleased. ‘That money is all we made in California,’ they added. ‘We were returning home to enjoy it.’” (page 55)
“Before boarding in San Francisco, Thomas Badger had given his wife $16,500 in $20 gold pieces, which she had sewed up in toweling, in three parcels, and laid flat in a trunk. The trunk sat in their stateroom, now in water up to Jane Badger’s knees as she picked her way among the ‘rubbish which strewed the cabin.’ She found the trunk, unlocked it, took out the gold, placed it in a carpetbag, threw a crepe shawl on top, locked the bag, then had to leave it sitting on the lower berth: It was too heavy, she couldn’t lift it.” (page 59)
Some men tried to jump into lifeboats intended only for women and children: “Joseph Bassford, holding a knife and trying to fasten around his waist a money belt containing two thousand dollars in gold, saw that the boat had been cut loose, so he stuffed the whole belt into the side pocket of his coat, leaped from the steamer deck, and landed in the boat. But somehow in his haste to make the boat, he dislodged the money belt and the belt hit the gray water as hard as he hit the boat, and it sank instantly.” (page 68)
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