Twenty-Five Flags

 

The Niantic was one of the first whaling vessels to bring gold-seekers to Yerba Buena (later named San Francisco). The ship was run aground and abandoned during the gold rush, where it was repurposed as a storehouse, saloon, and hotel until it was ultimately destroyed in an 1851 fire. The Niantic was rediscovered in 1978 during excavation for the Mark Twain Plaza Complex near the Transamerica Pyramid – six blocks from the current waterfront. At least forty and as many as sixty ships lie under the buildings, streets and sidewalks of San Francisco. The Euphemia, a ship once used as a jail, was found in 1921 under Battery and Sacramento Streets. The whaling ship Candace was excavated under Spear and Folsom streets in 2005. The General Harrison located under 425 Battery Street at Clay, was discovered in 2001. Archeologist James Delgado calls the area “a site that to the rest of the world is a Pompeii; a gold rush Pompeii.”