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.
More post
- 📝 What's Mussolini's first known statement about Hitler?
- 📝 What was the equivalent of "Shoulder Arms, Fire!" for archers in Ancient Rome?
- 📝 What date does a 1738 British author intend by "soon after the revolution"?
- 📝 When did Greek historians stop believing Greek mythology to be historical fact?
- 📝 The Triple Alliance vs The Allied powers vs The Allies
- 📝 The greek 'daktylos'
- 📝 How was Canadian sovereignty in the arctic threatened in the 1950s?
- 📝 Were ancient ships named?
- 📝 How did native Hawaiians achieve such a high literacy rate prior to the 1850s?
- 📝 Time of day first traffic light exploded
- 📝 How were Mercy Dogs of WWI and WWII trained to know which soldier is from their side and which one isn't?
- 📝 What is this 19th century British army uniform?
- 📝 What is the history of the legality of polygamy in Arab states?
- 📝 Had the French in Paris started to learn German before their liberation in 1944?
- 📝 What is the oldest excavated/discovered piece of silk textile made for clothing or writing?
- 📝 Were there documented battles of opposing air aces in World War II?
- 📝 What institutional precursors enabled labor unions to emerge in the United States?
- 📝 How to attack Fort Ross
- 📝 Why didn't Europeans before Gutenberg print with woodblocks?
- 📝 How did the baking soda recipe for crack cocaine catch on?
- 📝 Were there any ancient civilisation that functioned without currency or bartering?
- 📝 Why was Ernst Röhm murdered?
- 📝 Why didn't China try to explore or colonize the Americas?
- 📝 Why didn't American POWs in Germany seek support from Russian infantry, in WWII?
- 📝 Is there any truth to the story of a British general breaking down in tears upon seeing the battlefield conditions at Passchendaele?
- 📝 Did Bill Gates steal the GUI concept from Steve Jobs?
- 📝 When did people first try to limit which weapons could be used in war?
- 📝 Where did Hitler get the funds to invest in economic development programs such as the autobahn when the German economy was in a depression?
- 📝 Why didn't the Arab states industrialize?
- 📝 Can anyone tell me what this coin was used for, an approximate date and possibly what it’s worth?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How cheap were sailing ships in Gold Rush California?
- 📝 Are there any examples of California gold rush prospectors becoming exceedingly wealthy due to their claim(s)?
- 📝 Were sailing ships of the line understaffed with gunnery crews so that there were not enough for 2 broadsides?
- 📝 How were Father-Presidents of California Missions chosen?
- 📝 How were Aksumite ships constructed?
- 📝 How were Warrant Officers appointed to Royal Navy ships during the Age of Sail?
- 📝 How were false US flags identified on slave ships in the transatlantic slave trade?
- 📝 How were native laborers on California ranchos treated?
- 📝 Why are there no statistics on how many ships were sunk by carriers in Ww2?
- 📝 How much smaller were medieval farm animals in England than today?
- 📝 Were ancient ships named?
- 📝 How were tanks scrapped after World War Two?
- 📝 How were smallpox vaccines enforced in the US?
- 📝 How were concentration and extermination camp guards recruited?
- 📝 How severe were the casualties in ancient/medieval battles?
- 📝 How literate were common people in Medieval Europe?
- 📝 How were drawbridges and portcullises used tactically?
- 📝 How common were marital duels in medieval Europe?
- 📝 How did gold come to symbolize lower ranks than silver in the United States Air Force?
- 📝 How kind were the Muslim occupations of North Africa?
- 📝 How were medieval castles built in swamps or marshes without draining them?
- 📝 How were horses disembarked from sail ships?
- 📝 Why were British ships not of the same quality as French and Spanish ships until the latter part of the 18th century?
- 📝 How were Martello towers supposed to work?
- 📝 How were the cities of Milan and Bruges spared by the Black Death?
- 📝 How beneficial were war bonds to the US during WWII
- 📝 How prevalent were recreational drugs in the ancient world?
- 📝 How were Kurds involved (or not) in the invasion of Normandy?
- 📝 How much were telegraphists in the 1950s paid?
- 📝 Are there any documented examples of wooden ships which were in active service for 100 years or more? If not, what is the longest?