Niantic (whaling vessel)

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Career (United States) United States
Name: Niantic
Builder: Connecticut
In service: 1832
Out of service: 1849
Renamed: Niantic Hotel, 1849
Fate: Converted to storeship and hotel 1849; destroyed by fires 1850-1852
Status: Artifacts in San Francisco Maritime Museum; some unexcavated at Clay and Sansome Streets, San Francisco, California
General characteristics
Class and type: Ship or Barque
Tons burthen: "could probably take eight or nine hundred tons in storage"[1]
Length: 120 ft (37 m)
Beam: "extremely broad for her very short length"[2]
Propulsion: Sail
Complement: 28

The whaleship Niantic brought fortune-seekers to San Francisco (formerly Yerba Buena) in the California Gold Rush of 1849. Run aground and converted into a storeship and hotel, she was a prominent landmark in the booming city for several years. The site of the Niantic beside the Transamerica Pyramid is now a California Historical Landmark. Artifacts excavated in 1978 are on display in the San Francisco Maritime Museum.

Contents

[edit] Early Years of the Niantic

1832—Niantic built in Connecticut.[3] Originally intended for trade with China, she was later converted to a sperm whaler. Owners in 1840 appear to have been N. L. and G. Griswold of New York.[4]

1840—Niantic, Captain Doty in command (Captain Robert Bennett Forbes acting), sailed with tea and silk from Port of Canton to an unstated destination (perhaps New York) via Anjer (Anyer), Indonesia, just missing a blockade by the British in Canton as part of the Opium Wars. "Probably this was the last and most profitable voyage of the Niantic as a merchant ship."[5]

1844—Niantic bought by C. T. Deering for whaling.[6]

June 4, 1844—Niantic sailed from Sag Harbor, Captain Slate in command, for Pacific whaling cruise, including New Zealand whaling grounds.[7]

February 1, 1847—Niantic returned to Sag Harbor after voyage of nearly three years.[8]

1847—Niantic purchased by Burr & Smith of Warren, Rhode Island. [9]

September 16, 1848—Niantic sailed from Warren, Captain Henry Cleaveland of West Tisbury, Massachusetts (Martha's Vineyard) in command, headed for northwest Pacific. His sons James and Daniel Cleaveland were first and second mates, respectively.[10]

[edit] Peru, Panama, and the Race to California, 1849

After rounding Cape Horn, the Niantic put into Paita (Payta), Peru in the spring of 1849, and received a letter there from the American consul in Panama requesting them to carry passengers from Panama to San Francisco. Large numbers of people (in some accounts referred to as Argonauts) had crossed the Isthmus of Panama and were waiting on the Pacific coast for transportation to California; the gold rush had begun. The vessel was immediately modified to carry passengers above and below the weather deck. They took 150 mules, a large amount of lumber, and supplies from Peru to Panama, and picked up about 250-280 passengers in Panama; 20 are reported to have been accommodated in the captain's cabin alone.

Experience whaling in the Pacific and familiarity with its winds gave Cleaveland an advantage over other ships in the race to San Francisco; he headed southwest for 20 days, against the vocal objections of dismayed passengers, before catching the trade winds and turning northwest. The Niantic was thus one of the first ships to bring gold seekers to San Francisco, arriving at 11 pm July 5, 1849.

[edit] Storeship

Most of Niantic's crew promptly abandoned the ship to join the gold rush. Without sufficient crew to sail, and with more ships arriving daily, the officers of the Niantic were instructed by her owners to sell the vessel. With the aid of her empty whale oil barrels tied to her hull for extra buoyancy, the ship was floated on a high tide into shallow water, just offshore from the intersection of Clay and Montgomery Streets. Now hard aground, the Niantic was converted for use variously as a warehouse, store, offices, and hotel. Access was first by a pier or footbridge, but later, the sandy bluffs along Montgomery Street were flattened and the shallows around the ship were filled.

The Cleavelands appear to have purchased the smaller vessel Mary Wilder, and were able to sail out of San Francisco with a crew of just six.[11]

[edit] Fires, 1850-1852

The converted vessel burned repeatedly in the fires that devastated the new city of San Francisco over the next several years, but was repeatedly rebuilt as the Niantic Hotel, looking less like a ship each time. The Niantic Hotel was described in about 1852 as the finest hotel in San Francisco.

[edit] 1872, 1907, 1919

The hull of the Niantic was "rediscovered" when the old Niantic Hotel was demolished in 1872. Thirty-five baskets of champagne were found in the ruins.

In 1907, the Niantic was again discovered during rebuilding from the San Francisco Fire of 1906. A new Niantic Building was constructed.

A plaque was placed at 505 Sansome at Clay by the Historic Landmarks Committee of the Native Sons of the Golden West, on September 19, 1919.

[edit] Excavation, 1978

The Niantic was rediscovered once again in 1978 during excavation for the Mark Twain Plaza Complex next to the Transamerica Building, now about six blocks from the waterfront. Excavations were hurried, and there was little time for preservation or study.

One last basket of intact bottles of champagne (Jacquesson et Fils) was found deep in the charred remnants of the hull. One of these bottles was later given to Dionis Coffin Riggs, the great granddaughter of Captain Cleaveland, in appreciation for donating the ship's log to investigators; she drank the champagne and stated that it was good.[12]

Although some of the Niantic's remains were removed to a landfill, a portion of the bow remains undisturbed under a parking lot, perhaps to be "rediscovered" yet again in the future.

[edit] California Historic Landmark

The site of the Niantic is designated as California Historical Landmark #88.

[edit] San Francisco Maritime Museum

A portion of the Niantic's hull and rudder, with several related artifacts, is in the San Francisco Maritime Museum. The display includes the ship's log kept by First Mate James Cleaveland, recording the arrival in San Francisco. A diorama shows the ship as she is believed to have appeared in 1850, converted to a storeship but not yet landlocked.[13]

[edit] Notes and References

  1. ^ California as I saw it; pencillings by the way of its gold and gold diggers, and incidents of travel by land and water. With five letters from the Isthmus by W.H. Hecox. Edited by Dale L. Morgan

    “Chagres, Feb. 16th.

  2. ^ California as I saw it; pencillings by the way of its gold and gold diggers, and incidents of travel by land and water. With five letters from the Isthmus by W.H. Hecox. Edited by Dale L. Morgan

    “Chagres, Feb. 16th.

  3. ^ Perhaps in the town of Niantic or on the Niantic River. The name comes from the Niantic tribe of that area.
  4. ^ http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/calbk:@field(DOCID+@lit(calbk079div7)): These may have been owners from the time of building, but that is not clear at this time.
  5. ^ California as I saw it; pencillings by the way of its gold and gold diggers, and incidents of travel by land and water. With five letters from the Isthmus by W.H. Hecox. Edited by Dale L. Morgan

    “Chagres, Feb. 16th.

  6. ^ California as I saw it; pencillings by the way of its gold and gold diggers, and incidents of travel by land and water. With five letters from the Isthmus by W.H. Hecox. Edited by Dale L. Morgan

    “Chagres, Feb. 16th.

  7. ^ California as I saw it; pencillings by the way of its gold and gold diggers, and incidents of travel by land and water. With five letters from the Isthmus by W.H. Hecox. Edited by Dale L. Morgan

    “Chagres, Feb. 16th.

  8. ^ California as I saw it; pencillings by the way of its gold and gold diggers, and incidents of travel by land and water. With five letters from the Isthmus by W.H. Hecox. Edited by Dale L. Morgan

    “Chagres, Feb. 16th.

  9. ^ http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/calbk:@field(DOCID+@lit(calbk079div7)): Niantic's activities between February 1847 and September 1848, if any, are not clear at this time. It is likely that some time passed before she was sold, and it may be assumed that some months would have been taken in refitting the ship for sea, especially since the previous voyage appears to have been of nearly three years duration. There could scarcely have been more than a year remaining before September 1848, not enough time for a Pacific whaling cruise. Perhaps the Niantic made a relatively short Atlantic whaling cruise during this year, or perhaps she was simply idle. It seems unlikely she was engaged in activities unrelated to whaling, as the cost of multiple refittings must have been prohibitive.
  10. ^ California as I saw it; pencillings by the way of its gold and gold diggers, and incidents of travel by land and water. With five letters from the Isthmus by W.H. Hecox. Edited by Dale L. Morgan

    “Chagres, Feb. 16th.

  11. ^ I have assumed that the Mary Wilder was purchased in San Francisco, as ships were available at that time at very little cost. The Cleavelands went on to bring goods to San Francisco with the Mary Wilder; first timber from the Columbia River, and later goods from China. Eventually, the Mary Wilder was fitted for whaling and the Cleavelands returned to their customary business with a larger crew, James Cleaveland in command and Daniel Cleaveland first mate. Henry Cleaveland appears to have retired from whaling shortly after the Cleavelands acquired the Mary Wilder, possibly making just one voyage as her captain.
  12. ^ I heard this verbally from Dionis Coffin Riggs.
  13. ^ I saw the display sometime around 1998.

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