OpenStreetMap (new tab)

Google Map (new tab)

Google Streetview (new tab)

Overview

Built in CT, the Niantic served as a cargo ship plying the highly lucrative route between China and the United States between about 1835 and c. 1844. After the outbreak of the First Opium War in China (1839-1842), many Western traders found travelling to and from China too dangerous. Additionally, new classes of faster cargo ships were developed for the China trade by 1840, leaving the lumbering Niantic something of a anachronism. As a result, the Niantic was sold to C.T. Deering and repurposed to function as a whaling ship by 06/1844. Under Deering's ownership the Niantic made one whaling By 1849, however, the Gold Rush caused hordes of prospective miners to pay exorbitant passage rates to reach San Francisco, CA. Burr and Smith realized the profits to be made carrying gold seekers to Northern CA, and directed the Niantic's Captain Henry Cleaveland to make alterations to his ship to accommodate passengers while docked in Payte, Peru, and then make way to pick up passengers in Panama City, Panama, where the ship docked on 04/07/1849. The Niantic then made its way to Yerba Buena (aka San Francisco) by 07/05/1849, where its passengers and crew disembarked for the gold fields near Sacramento. The crew's desertion left Captain Cleaveland unable to sail the Niantic, marooning him and the ship in San Francisco Bay.

Building History

The beached merchant vessel, the Niantic, served for about two years (1849-1851) as an office and warehouse building located on what was the waterfront in San Francisco, CA. At low tide, the ship stood beyond the waterline, but its hull was ensconced in mud and supported by wooden posts, with a deck built around it. At high tide, however, ships could moor right next to the Niantic to unload passengers and cargo. The ship was located at what became the NW corner of Clay and Sansome Streets from 1851 until 1872.

The extensive fire of 05/03-04/1851, destroyed all of the Niantic above its submerged hull, necessitating a complete rebuilding. In 1851, a three-story hotel was built on the ship's hull that served as its foundation. An article on the Niantic in the Quarterly of the Society of California Pioneers, wrote about how quickly the hotel was rebuilt after the 05/1851 fire: "Gone, though, was the old Niantic, all save that part of the hull below the level of the ground. On the site was erected a new hotel called the Niantic Hotel, the foundation of which rested on the remains of the old ship's hull. That no time was lost in its construction is apparent from the following news item in the California Courier of October 29, 1851. 'The Niantic Hotel has no case of cholera reported. The hotel is one of the most respectable and genteel of public houses.' By a curious coincidence, one of the old Niantic's pump logs, when it was being driven down for a pile beneath the new hotel, struck a stream of water, from which flowed good fresh water for several years." (See "The Ship 'Niantic' in California," Quarterly of the Society of California Pioneers, vol. VI, no. 3, 10/1929, p. 143.)

This hotel operated as one of San Francisco's best hotels during its earliest days in the 1850s, and functioned in this capacity until 08/1872, when it was torn down for a larger and more modern building. In 1852, Thomas G. Johnson managed the Niantic Hotel.. (See A. W. Morgan & Co.'s San Francisco City Directory, September, 1852, p. 114A.) By 1867, H.C. Boyd had taken on the management of the Niantic. (See San Francisco Directory, 1867, p. 369.)

Demolition

Demolition of the Niantic Hotel #2 began on 08/02/1872. A note in the article, "The Ship 'Niantic' in California," in the Quarterly of the Society of California Pioneers, stated: "The subsequent history was not of very great importance, and on August 2, 1872, only one brief line in a San Francisco Daily (possibly the Daily Alta California newspaper) announced that 'the work of demolishing the old Niantic has commenced.' Two weeks later the same newspaper told its readers that 'The hull of the old ship Niantic has been exposed by the excavations for the foundation of a new Niantic Building on the site of the old Niantic Hotel. The keel must have been twenty feet below the present level of the street, showing the great amount of ground made over it in twenty-three years.'" (See "The Ship 'Niantic' in California," Quarterly of the Society of California Pioneers, vol. VI, no. 3, 10/1929, p. 143.)

PCAD id: 25836