Niantic was a whaleship that brought fortune-seekers to Yerba Buena (later renamed San Francisco) during the California Gold Rush of 1849.

[1] In 1840, the Niantic sailed, with Captain Doty in command (Captain Robert Bennett Forbes acting), with tea and silk from Port of Canton to an unstated destination (perhaps New York) via Anjer (Anyer), Indonesia, just missing a blockade by the British in Canton as part of the First Opium War.

[1] On September 16, 1848, she sailed from Warren, Captain Henry Cleaveland of West Tisbury, Massachusetts (Martha's Vineyard) in command,[4] and headed for the northwest Pacific.

Large numbers of people (in some accounts referred to as Argonauts) had crossed the Isthmus of Panama and were waiting on the Pacific coast for transportation to California; the gold rush had begun.

They departed Paita for Panama on 25 March taking 150 mules, barrels of potatoes, a large amount of lumber, and other supplies.

Experience whaling in the Pacific and familiarity with its winds gave Cleaveland an advantage over other ships in the race to San Francisco; for 28 days he headed generally southwest, against the vocal objections of dismayed passengers, before catching the southeast trade winds beginning May 24, and finally turning northwest May 30.

[citation needed] Without a crew to sail, and with more ships arriving daily, Niantic's officers were instructed by her owners, probably through an agent in San Francisco, to sell the vessel.

With the aid of her empty whale oil barrels tied to her hull for extra buoyancy, the ship was floated on a high tide into shallow water, just offshore from the intersection of Clay and Montgomery Streets.

"Over the gaping wound in her stout oaken side, where a doorway was cut for a public entrance, was inscribed the hospitable legend, 'Rest for the weary and storage for trunks.

[citation needed] The Cleavelands appear to have purchased the smaller vessel Mary Wilder, and were able to sail out of San Francisco with a crew of just six.

One of these bottles was later given to Dionis Coffin Riggs, the great granddaughter of Captain Cleaveland, in appreciation for donating the ship's log to investigators.