The ship entered Mare Island Navy Yard in 1857 and remained a receiving ship until decommissioning in 1912. By then her rig and upper works had changed so much that she no longer resembled the powerful sailing warship she had once been. A proposal to use her as a restaurant for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition failed when organizers withheld a permit. Salvagers removed pig iron, ballast, valuable hardwood, and fittings before burning the hull at Hunter's Point in 1915 to recover metal. Destroying the first commissioned American ship of the line and the navy's only razee erased an exceptional physical link to the early fleet.
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A long receiving-ship career ends in destructive salvage
After Pacific flagship service, Independence spent more than fifty years at Mare Island before being burned in 1915 to recover metal fittings.