Scow Schooners and their important roll in the California Gold Rush.

We always enjoy finding our niche in the history books. As owners of a replica tall ship sailing in San Francisco that is literally a part of American history, let's take a look back at the great California Gold Rush of 1849, which started with a lucky break. 

The gold mines would go on to make some people rich and cause some people to lose everything — and it is also what’s responsible for the city of San Francisco’s sudden growth, as well as bringing thousands upon thousands of people to California.

Here is the history of the California Gold Rush of 1849: How gold was first discovered and how the 'scow schooner' drove history in the right direction.

John A Sutter, a native of Switzerland, and formerly an officer of the Swiss Guards of Charles X of France, came to the United States in 1833, and settled in Missouri. There he remained till 1839, and then made the long and difficult journey across the plains and mountains to Oregon.
Thereafter he went to the Sandwich Islands [Hawaii], and finally to California, where he obtained the liberal grant of forty square miles of land in the Sacramento Valley. His disposition to roam was now satisfied, and he established himself on this princely domain.

Soon after, Sutter built on his land and set up a modest sawmill on the American River. Sutter found James Marshall and contracted with him to build the mill. It flourished for a few until the fateful day in January of 1848.

James Marshall moved west like thousands of other immigrants of that day, but his story is special. 

James Marshall was one of the first men to discover gold in the Sierra Nevada foothills. He was born on October 8, 1810, to a rural family in New Jersey. After contracting Malaria while working on a farm in Missouri, his doctor recommended he travel west for his health. Marshall eventually ended up at Sutter’s Fort, California, a Mexican territory. The mill, located in the Sierra Nevada, California foothills, was named after its owner John Sutter.
After fighting in the Mexican-American war, James Marshall lost his ranch and source of income. Thankfully, he soon was contracted with James Sutter to build a water-powered sawmill on the South Fork of the American River bank. Construction began in late August and continued into January, with a lot of Marshall’s team consisting of Native Americans and veterans from the Mormon Battalion heading back to Salt Lake City.
Gold Found!
While excavating part of the American River bed on January 24, Marshall discovered gold specks in the water. The crew boiled the flecks in lye soap and then hammered them to test their malleability and discovered it was gold. Later tests proved the gold was at least 23 karats. While Marshall’s focus was still his contracted sawmill, he allowed his crew to pan for gold during their free time.

News of the gold find quickly spread, and Marshall’s sawmill came to a halt as all able-bodied men began hunting for gold. Hordes of prospectors quickly forced him off the land, and he headed out of town to start a vineyard. However, high taxes and competition caused him to shut it down.
Marshall eventually joined the hunt for gold and became a partner in a gold mine in Kelsey. Unfortunately, no gold was found there, and Marshall became bankrupt.
Despite his involvement in kickstarting the gold rush, Marshall spent his last years living in a small cabin and died penniless.

After the discovery, more than 750,000 pounds of gold were extracted during the California gold rush.

The little ship that drove the economy of the gold rush years began as an architectural drawing envisioning a simple, easy and inexpensive to build vessel.  Enter the 'scow schooner'. To move the incredible amount of people, freight and supplies the 100 plus miles from San Francisco shores to the American River would require hundreds of shallow draft and easy to maneuver sailing vessels be built in a relatively short period of time. There were no true roads, no rail lines, no bridges, so transportation was at a premium.

Between 1848 and 1890, some 700 scow schooners were built for not only the gold rush, but to continue the movement of goods and people from the ocean, bays and flourishing cities to the inland farms and ranches. 

Over several decades, this scow schooner design became unique to San Francisco Bay, the coastal towns of northern California and up into the California Delta. It could sail flat on ocean waters, or the windy bays. It could carry twice its weight in freight. By raising its centerboard, it could easily float over shoals that other traditional schooners could not. The scow schooner was inexpensive to build and inexpensive to operate. Usually only crewed by 2 or 3, the scow would save its owners money and swiftly deliver the goods to their destinations. 

Many historians agree that without this iconic vessel design, the city of San Francisco's initial growth would have been severely diminished. When you step aboard our scow schooner replica, Gas Light, it might be difficult to envision  her as a freight ship. With modern design technologies and materials, the scow schooner design is maintained, yet the purpose for carrying passengers has transformed her below deck areas to the most comfortable interior found on any sailing charter boat.

Above decks, one can easily see the towering masts with 2000 square feet of sail propelling her along at a brisk pace. All Gas Light's rigging is manual including the steering system which takes the passengers back to a simple time before electrical and mechanical devices ruled the day. Sailing on Gas Light is magical. Historic, yet modern, nostalgic, yet comfortable.

The great California gold rush was short lived. The immense influx of immigrants to the Bay Area created a demand not only for the scow schooners to move freight and people locally, but also demand for bay front property to be available for ocean crossing vessels. The young city of San Francisco was overrun with hundreds of square rigged vessels converging on this small shoreline from all over the world. Without any return freight to foreign ports, most of the larger vessels found themselves without crew and abandoned at anchor. After a few years, it became necessary that the rapidly growing city needed instant buildings. Idle ships were seen to partially meet this demand.

A “List of Vessels Remaining in the Port of San Francisco” published in the Alta California (newspaper) on June 6, 1850, gives the name, rig, tonnage, and port of last registration of no less than 526 vessels ranging from little sloops and schooners from such distant ports as Sydney or New York, to the big steamship Tennessee, which was in port that day.
Among the first of the ships to become storage and housing for the city was the 'Niantic'. 
On August 9, 1849, about the time that San Francisco’s first large wharf was pushing outward to deep water at the foot of Commercial Street, the Niantic was advertised for sale in the Alta California — “a fast sailor, and ready for any voyage, she will be sold a bargain if applied for immediately…”
The bargain went begging, and on January 31, 1850 Alta California, she was again advertised, but for a different purpose.

An advertisement read:
"STORAGE – In the Niantic Warehouse, foot of Clay Street. The owners of the ship Niantic, announce to the public of San Francisco that said vessel is now ready to receive storage upon the most favorable terms. Terms of storage – $1 per month per barrel of 196 lbs., or thereabouts; $10 per month per ton of 40 cubic feet. Goods are received and delivered from 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. Two large lighters of about 50 tons, to let." A "lighter" was usually a smaller vessel that sailed between the shore, or pier out to the larger ship anchored away from the city front. Many of these "lighters" were scow schooners because they could carry vast tonnage of cargo and maneuvered well.

From the facilities offered of receiving and delivering goods, both afloat and on shore, with security against rain and fire, they confidently recommend these warehouses to the attention of the mercantile community. 
The Niantic had been drawn up into the waterlot at the northwest corner of Clay and Sansome Streets, her capacity greatly enlarged by the addition of what amounted to a building atop her deck, and the Clay Street entrance cut through her hull ornamented by a sign inviting “Rest for the Weary and Storage for Trunks."
With her choice and convenient location, the Niantic served as a hotel as well as a warehouse, was in part built up to two stories above the deck (which was about 8-10 feet above street level), with a balcony around the top floor, outbuildings, and broad, plank walks from the Clay Street Pier.
Like the Niantic, many Gold Rush storeships were surrounded by the rapidly advancing piers and connecting cross-streets, were burned or cut down, and their remains engulfed in the hasty filling operations of the early 1850s.
The Alta California for July 31, 1852, listed 164 storeships by name and general location. Not half of them are accounted for by vessels known or believed to have been left in place, burned or dismantled by the already-active ship-breakers at Rincon Point, or refitted for sea.
From around mid-1852, it is probable that the number of storeships declined rapidly, for the building boom of 1853 outstripped previous prodigies of construction, gold production and immigration peaked out or were past their peaks, and 1854 brought rumbles to the effect that the city was “overbuilt.”
In general, it would appear that a large number of vessels were buried under the advancing city front in the first half of the 1850s, probably more than 25, but probably fewer than 75. Most of the original storeship fleet was afloat and was served by lighters. 
By 1854-57, any hulk that could be removed at small expense had value for its yellow-metal fastenings and coppered bottom, for comparatively cheap Chinese labor was available to sift the ashes of vessels burned at Rincon Point. Alternatively, vessels good enough to refit could find crews enough at wages satisfactory to the owners.
Consequently, today there are many ships from the gold rush era that are buried under downtown San Francisco streets and buildings.
A map prepared by the San Francisco Maritime Museum in the early 1960s based on the standard histories and substantial newspaper research located 42 storeships by site between Green Street and Mission Street, Sansome Street and a line inside the present Embarcadero along the eastern waterfront of the city.
Of these, 41 are identified by name, and all but two were not recorded as having definitely been removed. That the map is far from comprehensive is shown by the fact that until the Niantic rediscovery, the several encounters with Gold Rush ship remains in financial district construction activity in the last ten years have been with ships not found on the map.

To this day, when walking along most of the waterfront streets and visiting many restaurants, bars or shops on the north and east side of San Francisco, you might feel the 'pulse' of the great California Gold Rush right under your feet! 

Fun Fact: “All I ask is a tall ship and a star to sail her by.”

Before setting off on the movie’s psychedelic boat ride, Willy Wonka quotes this beautiful line from the poem “Sea Fever” by the English poet John Masefield.