The ship Elizabeth (her picture above, in
scrimshaw on a whale's tooth, commemorates her first employment as a
whaler) sailed from Salem, Massachusetts, on April 5, 1849. She carried
the "Salem Mining Company" safely to San Francisco in one hundred and
sixty-five days. The voyage was somewhat unfortunate, although the
twelve members of the Company praised Captain Kimball's skill and tact.
Intense
cold off Patagonia disturbed the passengers; for a twenty-day period,
the vessel lay becalmed. And on arrival at San Francisco one of the
disappointed gold-seekers noted: "The most contemptible dirty place one
could wish to see. Not fit for man or beast." The rest is silence, so
far as the "Salem Mining Company" is concerned.
The Elizabeth shared
the fate of most dull-sailing ships—a permanent berth on the flats in
San Francisco harbor. After use for some time as a store ship, she
ended her career in a dignified manner as a U. S. Bonded Warehouse.
Abandoned vessels littered the banks of the river at Sacramento and
rotted away in Stockton Slough as well. Only smart schooners fit for
trade to Hawaii, and the steam-launches carried out as deck cargo by
some of the gold rush ships, found willing purchasers on the Pacific
coast.
