Cigars from 165-year-old ‘Ship of Gold’ wreck go to auction - and could still be smoked

[El Presidente]

Really?   

"He said: “Thirty-seven Cuban cigars, apparently bought on board when the ship stopped in Havana on the voyage from Panama to New York, were found in a passenger's trunk.

“Some of their wrappers are still in excellent condition. This is the first time these vintage cigars are being offered.”

 

 

Cigars from 165-year-old ‘Ship of Gold’ wreck go to auction - and could still be smoked

As the consignor put it - "imagine having a Havana-rolled cigar made when Abraham Lincoln was a senator!"

By IAN RANDALL

09:14, Tue, Feb 28, 2023 | UPDATED: 10:09, Tue, Feb 28, 2023

A stash of 165-year-old cigars salvaged from the ‘Ship of Gold’ are to go under the hammer (Image: Public Domain / J. Childs / PEN NEWS)

A stash of 165-year-old Cuban cigars salvaged from the wreck of the “Ship of Gold” are to go under the hammer this weekend — and, remarkably, they could still be smoked. The SS Central America sank in 1857 after being struck by a Category 2 hurricane during a voyage from Panama to New York, via Havana, claiming the lives of 425 of her 578 passengers and crew. Her wreck lies at a depth of 7,200 feet off of the coast of North Carolina. 

 

She went down carrying a shipment of gold so large — worth, in fact, a whopping £633million in today’s money — that its loss contributed to the US’s financial “Panic of 1857”.

 

While some of the recovered gold has already been sold, now the wreck’s other treasures, including the cigars and a daguerreotype photograph of a young woman dubbed the “Mona Lisa of the Depths”, are headed to auction.

The cigars were recovered back in 1991 from the sunken trunk of one of the SS Central America’s first-class passengers — one John Dement, a merchant, miner and military veteran from Oregon City, who actually survived the disaster.

According to Fred Holabird — the president of auction host Holabird Western Americana Collections — Mr Dement would have acquired his cigars when the SS Central America called into port at Cuba.

 

He said: “Thirty-seven Cuban cigars, apparently bought on board when the ship stopped in Havana on the voyage from Panama to New York, were found in a passenger's trunk.

“Some of their wrappers are still in excellent condition. This is the first time these vintage cigars are being offered.”

 

According to Dwight Manley of treasure consignor the California Gold Marketing Group, the cigars might even still be smoked.

He said: “Tommy Thompson, who discovered the wreck, said he and surely another could rehumidify the cigars and make them smokable.

“Imagine having a Havana-rolled cigar made when Abraham Lincoln was a senator!”

The majority of the cigars are set to be sold in lots of two — and with no reserve in play, it remains to be seen what collectors will pay to secure them.

Mr Holabird added: “They are from the biggest gold treasure in history, so there is no telling.”

[SpecialK]

They are in about the same shape as Abraham Lincoln... 

[SingleBarrel]

That’s disgusting. I guess if it got grinded into pipe tobacco maybe it could be smoked.

[cigaraholic]

I hope their Sancho Panza🙏

[Greenhorn2]

Lots of idiots with money. It's no telling what they may fetch.

[tigger]

Coming soon to CA's Connoisseur's Corner:

Aged long term in an oxygen free environment. Salt and seaweed notes dominate. Excellent, if not slightly past their prime.

96 points.

 

[NSXCIGAR]

On 3/1/2023 at 3:01 PM, tigger said:

Salt and seaweed notes dominate.

Ha, and you think Sancho Panza has salty driftwood notes! 

Some of their wrappers are still in excellent condition.

Uh, this is not the person I'd hire to grade my wrapper leaf...

The only person that should smoke these is the creepy petrified person above the stairs at the Nacional shop: