At Sutter's Mill on the American River northeast of Sacramento, workers accidentally discovered gold in 1848. The Gold Rush was on! Soon "gold fever" gripped the country. Prospectors and fortune seekers--the 49ers--flooded the state.

Ships provided the fastest way to the Mother Lode for prospectors from the East. In fact, while we often think of the Gold Rush pioneers crossing the western United States in covered wagons, the fact is that more people came to California by boat. They were the Argonauts--travelers on the sea in search of adventure and riches.

There were two ways to come to California by sea. The first was to go around the continent of South America. The other was to cross the isthmus of Panama from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific and board a vessel bound for California. Once in California, the gold fields beckoned. In fact, so many sailors jumped ship to run to the gold fields that crews for ships were scarce. A ghost fleet of abandoned and unmanned vessels anchored in San Francisco Bay. To learn more about coming to California by sea during the Gold Rush, click here.

So when did the Gold Rush end? Some would say never, but a convenient measure is 1853 and 1854 when more people left California than came here. Two vessels carrying prospectors their gold wrecked in this area only a few day into the first leg of a long journey home.

Wreck of Winfield Scott

Winfield Scott was one of the many vessels that helped bring the Argonauts to California. Sent to California in 1850, she shuttled passengers back and forth between Panama and San Francisco. She was a modern, well-constructed ship.

In early December 1853, she was bound from San Francisco to Panama where the passengers would disembark. After leaving the vessel, the passengers would cross the isthmus to the Gulf of Mexico and board ships for the journey to their final destination. The steamer sailed through the foggy Channel at top speed. The captain, Simon Blunt, boldly asserted that fog does not slow a steamship. After all, going through the Channel was shorter and quicker than sailing outside the Channel. Besides, the Captain had helped survey these waters for the government a few years earlier. He knew these waters well.

During the evening and into the night, the ship passed the islands of San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Santa Cruz. At about 11:00 p.m., the ship grounded bow first on a submerged ledge close to the north side of Anacapa's middle island. The impact jarred the hundreds of passengers from sound sleep to wide awake. One passenger, Edward Bosqui recalled that his cabin mate crawled about looking for his false teeth and wig. On deck, Bosqui found a mass of milling passengers. The ship's officers moved about in darkness, trying to restore calm, reassuring the passengers that everything was all right. Passengers returned to their cabins and grabbed saddlebags and satchels filled with gold. The captain tried to back the ship off the ledge. The ship's stern struck, tearing away the rudder. By now, water poured through gaping holes in the bow. Winfield Scott was fast aground and sinking. She would not sail again. The vessel was doomed.

Some crew lowered lifeboats while others kept the passengers from rushing the boats. A small pinnacle was found nearby. Passengers transferred from the boat to the pinnacle. In the morning, they moved to the beach in a nearby cove. The castaways established a shore camp, salvaged what they could, and shot seals and caught fish for food. Within a few days, the rescue of the more than 300 passengers began and was soon completed; they resumed their journeys.

Salvage efforts would rescue most of the gold and mail. She was visited by salvors various times over the years, including during the metal shortage of WWII when her hull sheathing provided material for the war effort. Today, pieces of her deck and paddle wheel can be seen in about 25 feet of water.

Wreck of Yankee Blade

Ten months after Windfield Scott wrecked, disaster would again strike homeward-bound prospectors. Yankee Blade, a 274 foot paddle wheel steamer ran aground in heavy fog at Point Honda at 3:30 p.m. on October 1, 1854, with more than 800 people on board.

Upon leaving San Francisco the day before, the vessel is said to have engaged in a race with another paddle-wheeler, Sonora. The Blade was well ahead as the ship neared disaster at Point Arguello. The ship had been traveling in fog for some time. Yet, the Captain did not reduce speed, believing he was a safe distance from the rocky and inhospitable coastline. Yet, an undetected current carried the ship closer to shore than anyone realized.

A letter written after the wreck by a passenger on board the doomed vessel noted,

"... met Captain Randal, who invited me to go to the salon and drink with him. He remarked that we were making fine headway...while we were talking, our ship went upon the rocks, without one moments warning to the crowd of human beings upon her deck, who rushed out of the cabins to the open deck in the wildest alarm, with reason to; for there we were fixed-fairly impaled upon sharp rocks, in the midst of foaming breakers; and the fog so thick that we could not see the high rocky shore a mile distant. In fact, so dense was the fog, that we could see nothing beyond the deck but mist and water. It was a time for alarm, and a scene of terrible confusion."

While all passengers survived the grounding, as many as 30 were lost when lifeboats swamped making for the one landing spot in the area that could be found. On board the boat, ruffians began ransacking the vessel; some of the booty was lost when the lifeboat they were in swamped in the surf. In the night, shots were heard to ring out on the vessel.

As the ship broke up, debris from the wreck was picked up on the current and carried into the Channel. Cabin furniture, trunks with "nothing of value" in them, and a case with medical text books were found floating near the islands or washed up on the island. People on Santa Rosa Island thought it must have come from a wreck on neighboring San Miguel.

In the months following the wreck, divers salvaged gold and other items from the wreckage. From time to time, divers brave the treacherous waters around the wreck site at Point Honda, continuing to probe the sea floor for the remaining pieces of Yankee Blade!