The most famous of the beached ships was the Niantic, pieces of which are still preserved at the S.F. Maritime Museum. Another such ship was the Arkansas beached next the PacificStreet wharf near the corner of what would be Battery Street. She became the Old Ship Saloon, the bar tended by one James Laflin who had come around the Horn in her on her last voyage.The U.S. Hotel was built over the ship but when she was sold for scrap in 1857 the Old Ship continued in another building and is still operating today.
Laflin became a boatman,runner, crimp (shangaier) and shipping master (who acted as middleman between shangaiers and ships captains needing crews) as well as owning other saloons and sailors boarding houses which were ideal places to shangai sailors from. In the latter half of his life he specialized in crews for whalers and died in 1905, 73 years old.
Good books on this subject include Herbert Asbury, The Barbary Coast and Bill Pickelhaupt, Shangaied in San Francisco. Hugills' book, Sailor Town is worth a read too though he relies heavily on the Asbury book.