Following the discovery of gold outside of San Francisco in the 1840s, thousands flocked to the city

Following the discovery of gold outside of San Francisco in the 1840s, thousands flocked to the city on the way to the gold fields. While some traveled across land, but many chose to get there by ship, and as a consequence of majority of the crews also abandoning ship to go and look for gold alongside the passengers.

The result was San Francisco Bay quickly filling up with empty ships like an airport car-park as captains were left with no crew to sail their boats on to their next destination. Eventually the ships were themselves stripped of furnishings and anything else useful, and some were consequently brought ashore to be used as building materials in the city proper.

Amusingly a high number of the folks that sailed to San Francisco during the gold rush were actually Australians, who came to the city in such numbers it lead to the establishment of an unofficial Sydney Town. The local San Franciscans didn’t take kindly to the arriving Australian gold prospectors, whom they called “Sydney Ducks“, and accused them of bring crime and drunkenness to the city.

Many of these Australian prospectors would end up returning home (followed by many Americans going the opposite direction) following the discovery of gold in Australia in 1851, however.