After entering a heavy fog off the coast of Southern California on the evening of December 1, 1853, the ship crashed into Middle Anacapa Island.

Winfield Scott has been the object of numerous salvage operations since the crash, and currently rests underwater as part of the Channel Islands National Park and Marine Sanctuary.

Since neither the Panama Canal nor the First transcontinental railroad had been constructed, people emigrating to California from the Eastern United States had three main routes of passage.

While this cut the length of the sea journey in half, ships to ferry passengers from Panama to San Francisco were not commonplace.

Winfield Scott (originally to be named Placer) was constructed by the shipbuilding company Westervelt and MacKay of New York, and was completed in March 1850.

The ship was named for the celebrated United States Army general Winfield Scott (the stern was built with a bust in his likeness), and she was launched on 27 October 1850.

In addition to her complement of passengers and crew, the ship was transporting a shipment of gold bullion worth an estimated US$2 million.

[6][7] The ship was completely evacuated in approximately two hours, and the survivors spent the first night camped on a pinnacle of rock that measured 50 by 25 yards (46 by 23 m).

[8] One of the passengers, Asa Cyrus Call, recalled "a terrible jar and crashing of timbers...I hurried out on deck, where my attention was fixed on a wall of towering cliffs, the tops of which were hidden by the fog and darkness and appeared about to fall and crush us.

"[4] On 2 December, the steamship SS California, returning to San Francisco from Panama, was alerted to the presence of the wreck survivors by the smoke of a gun they had fired.

[14] Shortly after the wreck, the United States Coast Survey recommended that a permanent lighthouse facility be built on Anacapa Island.