Presentation: The Buried Ships of San Francisco

Learn about the buried ships of San Francisco with Richard Everett and the San Francisco Historical Society. Every day thousands of people unknowingly walk over the now buried hulls of Gold Rush ships, their wharves, and cargoes. Others ride in Muni tunnels beneath the street passing right through the oaken hull of a 19th century ship. Nearly a thousand ships from all over the world came to San Francisco in the early years of the Gold Rush. About fifty of them burned in the May 4, 1851 fire, some still tied to their wharves. All of it was buried as the sandy hills were leveled to push the shoreline out to deeper water. These ships started to be found in the early 1920s, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that archaeologists and the San Francisco Maritime Museum began researching, documenting, and even defending them, as they were encountered by construction projects. 

Connect: San Francisco Historical Society