Gold rush port : the maritime archaeology of San Francisco's waterfront

Described as a "forest of masts," San Francisco's Gold Rush waterfront was a floating economy of ships and wharves, where a dazzling array of global goods was traded and transported. Drawing on excavations in buried ships and collapsed buildings from this period, James P. Delgado re-creates San Francisco's unique maritime landscape, shedding new light on the city's remarkable rise from a small village to a boomtown of thousands in the three short years from 1848 to 1851. Gleaning history from artifacts—preserves and liquors in bottles, leather boots and jackets, hulls of ships, even crocks of butter lying alongside discarded guns—__Gold Rush Port__ paints a fascinating picture of how ships and global connections created the port and the city of San Francisco. Setting the city's history into the wider web of international relationships, Delgado reshapes our understanding of developments in the Pacific that led to a world system of trading. "Described as a "forest of masts," San Francisco's Gold Rush waterfront was a floating economy of ships and wharves, where a dazzling array of goods was traded, transported from around the globe to this port city. Drawing on excavations of buried ships and collapsed buildings from this period, James P. Delgado recreates San Francisco's unique maritime landscape, shedding new light on the city's remarkable rise from a small village to a boomtown of thousands in the three short years from 1848 to 1851. Gleaning history from artifacts - preserves and liquors in bottles, leather boots and jackets, hulls of ships, even crocks of butter lying alongside discarded guns - Gold Rush Port paints a fascinating picture of how ships and global connections created the port and the city of San Francisco. Setting the city's history into the wider web of international relationships, Delgado reshapes our understanding of developments in the Pacific that led to a world system of trading."--Jacket Described as a "forest of masts," San Francisco's Gold Rush waterfront was a floating economy of ships and wharves, where a dazzling array of global goods was traded and transported. Drawing on excavations in buried ships and collapsed buildings from this period, James P. Delgado re-creates San Francisco's unique maritime landscape, shedding new light on the city's remarkable rise from a small village to a boomtown of thousands in the three short years from 1848 to 1851. Gleaning history from artifacts—preserves and liquors in bottles, leather boots and jackets, hulls of ships, even crocks of butter lying alongside discarded guns— Gold Rush Port paints a fascinating picture of how ships and global connections created the port and the city of San Francisco. Setting the city's history into the wider web of international relationships, Delgado reshapes our understanding of developments in the Pacific that led to a world system of trading. Contents List of Tables Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. Theoretical Perspective 3. Global Maritime Connections in the Pacific before the Gold Rush 4. Development of the Gold Rush San Francisco Waterfront 5. The Commission Merchants 6. The Archaeology of Gold Rush San Francisco’s Waterfront 7. Gold Rush Cargoes: Evidence of theWorld Maritime System 8. San Francisco and the Nineteenth-Century World Maritime System Appendix 1: Commission Merchant Business Cards from the Supplemental Daily Alta California, October 4, 1849 Appendix 2: The “Representative Storeship” of 1849–1851 Appendix 3: Cargo Stored As Merchandise aboard the General Harrison Storeship Sources Consulted and Cited Index Described as a 'forest of masts', San Francisco's Gold Rush waterfront was a floating economy of ships and wharves, where an array of global goods was traded and transported. This work covers the city's remarkable rise from a small village to a boomtown of thousands in the three short years from 1848 to 1851.