This haunting image is the so-called Mona Lisa of the Depths, a daguerrotype of an unknown woman that was found in the wreck of the SS Central America, lying on the ocean bed off the coast of South Carolina. The ship sank in a hurricane in September 1857, with the loss of 425 lives and some 30,000lb of gold. The wreck was located in 1988, with the aid of Bayesian search theory (whatever that is – more than once I've had a brief sense of understanding Bayesian statistics, but it soon passes), and gold to the value of $100-150 million was salvaged. And so was the Mona Lisa of the Depths, an extraordinary survival and a portrait of rare intensity and directness. She seems, truly, a 'living likeness'. Those eyes...
Much more valuable than the gold.
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