Buried ships in San Francisco

The Buried Ships of Yerba Buena Cove by Michael Warner et al., 2017

(San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, National Park Service)

 

Beneath contemporary streets of San Francisco lie the remains of many sailing ships that brought people to San Francisco during the gold rush that began in 1849. The ships have different stories, but many were used at storage as the city's shoreline was expanded outward around them by landfill--some of these and other abandoned ships burned in fires and were buried afterward. The Park's Collections Department holds many resources about these ships in addition to the resources highlighted here--please contact us for more information.

• New Map Reveals Ships Buried Below San Francisco (June 2, 2017 National Geographic article about the Park's new map shown above)
• Journals Detail Four Voyages of the Niantic (article about one of the buried ships)
• Niantic, Buried Gold Rush Ship (Collections Corner article)

 

"The Buried Ships of Yerba Buena Cove, San Francisco, California" by Michael Warner et al., July 2017--downloads are available at the following links:

high-resolution version

low-resolution version

 

(San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, National Park Service)

"Gold Rush Vessels Beached, Scuttled, and Broken Up" from Notes on the Gold Rush Ships, by Albert Harmon, Harlan Soeten and Karl Kortum. A larger version of this image is available.

 

Buried Maps Comparison

Left image
The Buried Ships of Yerba Buena Cove, San Francisco, California by Michael Warner et al., July 2017
Credit: (San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, National Park Service)

Right image
Gold Rush Vessels Beached, Scuttled, and Broken Up
Credit: (San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, National Park Service)