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Look down at the sidewalk, at the northwest corner of Battery and Clay streets. See those gleaming metal curves embedded in the concrete? These outline the location beneath your feet of a ship called General Harrison that's been buried here since the 1850s. The tiny metal T shapes are copper nails, an artistic representation of the ones taken from the ship's hull. For the full story of how a ship ends up buried in the middle of a city, visit stop number five, one block west of here. But here's a quick summary.
The cargo ship General Harrison arrived in San Francisco in 1850. The ship's crew ran off to join the rush for gold. So the owners hauled the ship as far as they could up into the mudflats then converted it into a warehouse for arriving cargo. Eventually, the city grew out into the mud flats and surrounded the ship. Then when a massive fire swept through and destroyed the neighborhood in 1851, the remains were buried and the city rebuilt on top. It wasn't until 150 years later, in September 2001, that under guidance of archaeologists, the ship was unearthed by construction crews preparing the building that's here today. Maritime archaeologist Jim Delgado was part of the team working that day.
JAMES DELGADO
I arrived on the scene just after General Harrison had started to be exposed, from the burnt-off tops of its ribs, or its frames, where it had burned to the waterline in May of 1851. General Harrison gradually emerged from the mud tightly built, heavy, thick wooden ribs still covered with planks on both sides.
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As the General Harrison reemerged, the crew couldn't help but notice a few distinctive smells, says archaeologist Rhonda Robichaud.
RHONDA ROBICHAUD
You had this heavy smell of charred wood.
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A smell still lingering from when the ship burned in the Great Fire of 1851.
RHONDA ROBICHAUD
Interestingly, there must have been a lot of wine in the General Harrison because it smelt like charred wood and booze.
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Archeologists also began finding evidence of what had happened after the fire, washing away the mud. They found a thick iron pry bar and a stack of iron bolts nearby. Also around was a broken rice bowl, a shattered bottle, and several pairs of worn out boots. It looked like a crew of workers had just left.
JAMES DELGADO
Somebody had cut two doorways into each side down low where ramps had come in and goods had been pulled out.
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They also noticed that the copper and brass fittings in the ship were all missing—clear evidence that salvagers had spent time here reclaiming these valuable metals.
RHONDA ROBICHAUD
They first cleared all of the cargo out from the hold where burnt and unburnt just went over the sides into the shallows of the Bay so that they could get at the copper fastenings on the ship. So they took all of the copper and all of the brass.
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The archaeology team concluded that the professional ship salvager Charles Hare had sent his crew of mostly Chinese workers to recover these metals. To hear more about the ship salvage business visit stop number 11, the site of Charles Hares shipyard.
The archaeologists also dug through the pile of half burned cargo dumped next to the ship.
JAMES DELGADO
And there in a mound alongside the ship—as we began to peel it away, using not just a backhoe, but with hoses that carefully melted the thick amalgam of mud and creosote from burned wood—we began to reveal a pile of broken and half melted glass, and in it all sorts of things, some of which were perfectly preserved. I'll remember forever a wooden box with its lid still attached. And as we washed away the mud and exposed this crate, and realizing it was a wine box, were able to lift the three planks and find 12 bottles, a few of them broken, but the others intact, still packed in straw, and with the corks still in place in the neck of each bottle, and filled with their liquid contents. We know from analysis that it was a very fine white wine, most likely a chardonnay from France.
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They unearthed bottles of brandy, sherry, and champagne, and samples of what might have been pâté. Other surprises included bolts of charred cloth, fused and melted kegs of nails and tacks, sacks of beans and barley, a bag of bright red glass beads. These were likely goods ready to be sold from the storeship at the time it burned.
JAMES DELGADO
The General Harrison in many ways was set up in some fashion as Costco is today, with goods that might not sell in bulk immediately loaded down below in the hole. In the 'tween deck area, more accessible to people, there you would have the goods that they expected would move quickly. But you also had up on the top main deck, covered over by the structure that housed the vessel, you had a bunch of benches—and there, an auctioneer would be on hand to say, "Today just in! The ship Magnolia from Boston. I have 150 lots of shovels. What am I bid gentleman?"
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Newspaper ads from the time list goods being sold at the General Harrison—a glimpse into the economy of early San Francisco.
RHONDA ROBICHAUD
One of them that was advertising assaying goods, crucibles, hard tax shovels—so everything that you would need to go to the Gold Rush. And that same advertisement had children's coats and silk shawls because original colonists had been here 100 years and so they had families.
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Looking back on the dig, archaeologist Jim Delgado wondered how the ship and its cargo could be in relatively good condition when the fire had burned every building to the ground.
JAMES DELGADO
If a ship is caught in a fire that's burning with such intensity that a thick wooden hull is being consumed and turned to ash, where buildings are literally vaporizing, where men are baked to death inside brick buildings with iron shutters, and where metal is melting because the temperatures are reaching thousands of degrees. How is it that wooden boxes are in charge and that straw is still wrapping bottles that are inside those boxes and that clothing—be it completely sewn or blanks where you could get stacks of what would become shirts or skirts or pants—are still lying in there along with burlap sacks and they've not been turned to a crisp? How does this happen? Well, what happens is that in the midst of a fire on the water, the least amount of water coming in as the ship leaks and as it burns is turned to steam, and steam expands at well over 1,000 to one, I think almost 1,900 to one. So a gallon of water that leaks in is going to be turned into this massive cloud of steam which has the effect of smothering any flaming piece of debris that falls inside the ship. And as well the heat is drawn naturally to the water outside the vessel.
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We may not have heard the last of the General Harrison because the 2001 excavation only uncovered the stern portion of the ship. The bow remains entombed beneath the two story building at 432 Clay Street. Someday no doubt real estate developers will decide to raze and rebuild on that lot. And another crew of archaeologists might just get a whiff of charred wood, booze, and a glimpse of life during the Gold Rush.
