Pacific graveyard: Adaptive reuse, recycling, and abandonment in San Francisco's maritime graveyards, 1849-1959

Abstract

California's San Francisco Bay encompasses one of the largest collections of ship graveyards in North America. These graveyards include ships buried beneath subsequent urban development in downtown San Francisco, as well as ships situated along estuarine bay shores in Sausalito, Belvedere, South San Francisco, Oakland, and Benicia. As a large estuary, other shores on the bay also served as a repository for smaller numbers of laid-up craft and individual vessels. Among the more unique of these graveyards are those in and around San Francisco, which now lie buried beneath urban landfill. The majority of these vessels date to the California Gold Rush (1848-1855). They comprise a unique assemblage of vessels that were either purposely beached or surrounded by pilings or filled and recycled into buildings to fill the need for structures during the Gold Rush population boom. After the rush, a number of vessels were further recycled by ship-breakers, whereas others were sunk to establish title to submerged lands. Other craft, either buried or exposed on mudflats, date from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Archaeological excavation and study of these vessels has provided insights into the role of recycled ships in the economic and physical geographical study of San Francisco, as well as documenting the characteristics of nineteenth and early twentieth century craft, including previously undocumented examples of regional vernacular craft as well as ships adaptively reused.