By the time she was lost, the SS Republic boasted a history so remarkable as to seem far-fetched. Built in Baltimore at the height of the steam age, she was christened the SS Tennessee in 1853. She was an industrial marvel, 210 feet long by 34 feet wide with a massive single piston driving two 28-foot iron sidewheels. The stout ship could transport 100 passengers and fit 5,000 barrels of cargo in her hold.

The Tennessee began service with an unprofitable route between Baltimore and Charleston.To test a new market, her owners sent her to England on a speculative voyage. The gamble succeeded, and she returned with cargo from Havre, France - the first Baltimore steamship to complete a transatlantic voyage.She was sold twice by 1856, and then outfitted to transport would-be miners in search of California gold. Her next calling was to carry soldiers of fortune to fight in Nicaragua for the famed filibuster William Walker.

At the onset of the Civil War, the Tennessee was impounded by the Confederate navy as a blockade runner. Union ships were dispatched to hunt her down, but it wasn't until the capture of New Orleans that she fell into Union hands.

The Tennessee was turned into a well-armed fighting machine for the Union Navy and often served as Admiral David Farragut's flagship. She fought vigorously in several conflicts, including the Battle of Mobile Bay, made famous by Farragut's exclamation, "Damn the Torpedoes - full speed ahead!"

Her military career ended abruptly when her hull was damaged in a gale, and in 1865 a New York shipping magnate bought the crippled ship and renamed her SS Republic. After an extensive refit, she was soon making regular runs from New York to New Orleans with shipments of cargo and money to fuel the city's expanding post-war economy.

She steamed out of New York on October 18, 1865, bound for New Orleans on her final voyage. On the fifth day, a gale blew in and by nightfall the Republic was stalled without power in a fierce hurricane. Passengers labored for hours to bail out the ship's hold, but it was a futile effort. Her crew worked feverishly to prepare the lifeboats and patch together a makeshift raft.

At 4 p.m. on October 25, 1865, the Republic disappeared into the sea. Published accounts of the survivors' harrowing tales were accompanied by newspaper reports that "some $400,000 in treasure" had gone down with the ship.