How cheap were sailing ships in Gold Rush California?
score:3
Accepted answer
Two ships, the Inez and Bethel were purchased together at San Francisco for the modest total sum of $450. By comparison the price of passage on a ship to San Francisco from New York around that time could be in the range of $100-$300 per ticket.
To put this in context, a story from KQED radio outlines several historical reasons for the practice of abandoning ships amid the Gold Rush.
- There was indeed a shortage of labor as suggested in the question. Even captains deserted ships in search of gold.
Many of the ships were decrepit to begin with and knowingly sent to San Francisco on their final voyage.
Wood was in short supply and expensive to mill, as evidenced by the prevalence of canvas tents as the primary form of shelter. This added to the incentive to use a ship for scrap.
Scuttling a ship was the easiest way to make a claim of land on shore, a practice known as "hulk undertaking". The ships for which prices were quoted above were purchased for this purpose, which the source describes in detail.
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