3) The Niantic Site, San Francisco
From 1848-1849, The Niantic ship made a fortune ferrying gold-seekers to Yerba Buena Cove (now San Francisco Bay). It wasn’t just the passengers who scurried off the ship in search of gold-fortune. The crew abandoned ship in search of gold as well. Apparently, their Captain wasn’t popular, as two of the deserters stabbed him upon jumping ship. Left with nearly no crew, the ship was floated out of the bay and intentionally run aground in what is now the intersection of Montgomery and Clay Streets. Since that time, it’s been used as a store, offices, a warehouse and a hotel. After the Great Fire of 1851, where the ship burned to the waterline, a hotel was built on the remains. It too was subsequently destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake. In 1978, the hull of the Niantic was rediscovered. A portion of it is now in the San Francisco Maritime Museum.
