In 1851, over 800 abandoned ships filled San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Cove; some were turned into hotels, salons, churches, while others became museum relics

Hidden deep beneath San Francisco's busy pavements, history sleeps. Below the roads lie the remains of sailing vessels that carried thousands of fortune seekers to the city during the California Gold Rush in 1849. The ships were abandoned as passengers left in a hurry in search of gold. As a result, the waterfront became crowded with deserted vessels. By 1851, more than 800 ships were packed into Yerba Buena Cove, creating an extraordinary scene of towering masts along what had previously been a quiet, muddy shoreline.

Yerba Buena Cove's shallow waters were progressively reclaimed as San Francisco grew quickly. In order to fill the shoreline and make more space for construction, the city used sand, dirt, and other waste. As a result, the abandoned ships and their remnants were buried beneath the landfill's strata. The original shoreline was drastically altered by this enormous change, which ultimately transformed the tiny cove into the heavily populated area that is now Downtown San Francisco.

Decades later, construction projects unearthed these lost ships. Many of these discoveries have since become part of the collections at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.


Among the notable finds are parts of the Niantic. Its stern and rudder were unearthed in 1978 and are now preserved and displayed at the Maritime Museum, offering a tangible glimpse into San Francisco's Gold Rush-era waterfront. In 2001, General Harrison, a 409-tonne storeship built in Newburyport in 1840 and buried in 1851, was also found.

Not All Ships Became Fossils

As per a National Park Service report, some of these vessels were repurposed. Some ships, such as the Niantic, became salons, warehouses, and even temporary accommodations. According to Science Daily, an English immigrant named Joe Anthony opened a pub named Old Ship Ale House inside the hull of the Arkansas in 1851. Its descendant, the Old Ship Saloon, still serves drinks to patrons a bit away from where the ship landed.

How The Ruins Built The Town

Due to the scarcity of timber and the high cost of sawing it, the harbour became a hardware shop. Along with hotels, offices, auction rooms, cafes, a church, and the overcrowded city jail, over 200 of the nicer vessels were converted into permanent buildings, the majority of which were warehouses.

Eventually, however, many of these ships decayed, were destroyed by fires, or gradually disappeared beneath the mud. Over a thousand structures were destroyed by the fire that tore through about twenty blocks on the evening of May 3, 1851, and the waterfront fleet was destroyed.

In 2016, hull timbers and a length of keel about 25 feet down were discovered during foundation work next to the Old Ship Saloon; this was most likely the Arkansas. After determining that it was unsafe to lift the remains, archaeologists took the same decision as Pastron: cover it again and leave it for the next excavator.