 Others were bought "cheap" and hauled up on the mud flats and used as store ships, saloons, temporary stores, floating warehouses, homes, and a number of other uses.Many of these repurposed ships were partially destroyed in one of San Francisco's many fires and ended up as landfill to expand the available land.The population of San Francisco exploded from about 200 in 1846 to 36,000 in the 1852 California Census.