In the early 1870s, a Barbary Coast crimper named James Kelly chartered a paddle steamer, announced a birthday party with free whiskey, dosed the drinks with opium, and delivered roughly a hundred men to three ships waiting in the bay. The address was 33 Pacific Street. Today it is the Financial District.

The address is 33 Pacific Street, between Drumm and Davis, two blocks from what is now the Embarcadero. In the early 1870s it was a saloon and boarding house run by a man named James Kelly. Today it is the Financial District, and there is nothing on the block face to mark it.

Kelly went by Shanghai Kelly, a nickname that described his occupation. He was a crimp — a labor contractor whose business was filling positions aboard ships, whether the workers had agreed to the arrangement or not. The Barbary Coast, the stretch of Pacific between Kearny and Sansome streets where sailors spent their money and lost their bearings, was full of men in similar lines of work. Kelly's name survives in the historical record partly because of the scale of what he did and partly because of how he did it.

At some point in the early 1870s, he faced an order he couldn't fill through the usual means: three ships anchored in the bay, all short-handed, captains willing to pay above-rate. His response was to throw a party.

Kelly chartered the paddle steamer Goliath and announced a birthday celebration — framed as a thank-you to the runners and fellow crimps who helped him operate, open to any man without work, free drinks and food throughout. He filled the boat. His bartenders dosed the whiskey with opium. By the time the Goliath came alongside the first waiting ship, the guests were in no condition to renegotiate; by the time it reached the third, Kelly had cleared the order. Around a hundred men were delivered to the waiting vessels. The captains paid.

What made the episode remarkable enough to appear in later histories was the return trip. Kelly's one exposure — arriving back at the dock with an emptied boat and no party guests — resolved itself when the Goliath came upon the Yankee Blade, which had struck a rock and was going down. He took on the survivors. He arrived back at the waterfront with a full boat, passengers who said they'd been rescued at sea, and no obvious questions to answer.

Lisa Montanarelli and Ann Harrison recount the scheme in Strange But True, San Francisco (Globe Pequot, 2005). Steven Wilson's account in HistoryNet covers the episode within the broader history of Pacific Coast crimping. Darren Mckeeman brought the address back into view this week in his Substack newsletter Long Wharf, writing about the block's history for a contemporary audience.

The 500 block of Pacific — what SF Heritage describes as the quiet, tree-lined remnant of what was once called "Terrific Street" — shows no trace of what Kelly operated there. The bay is still visible from the corner on a clear morning. The boats on it now are recreational.