The SS Yankee Blade was a three-masted side-wheel steamship belonging to the Independent Line (a holding of Cornelius Vanderbilt). The Yankee Blade was one of the first steamships built to transport gold, passengers, and cargo between Panama and San Francisco, California, during the California Gold Rush. The ship wrecked in fog off of Point Arguello in Southern California on October 1, 1854. The shipwreck cost an estimated 30 to 40 lives.