Puget Sound Steamboats, GoCen Days o£ Fraser River Navigation 69 
obtained from the passenger clearances from San Francisco for Victoria and Fraser River points. The following 
list gives the name of the vessels and the number of passengers carried by each between April I5 and August 
7, 1858. It also shows, in a striking manner, the rise and fall of the Fraser boom. In 
April the steamship Commodore carried 3oo passengers, the schooner Golden State I5, and 
the steamer Constitution 14o , total 455- In May the steamship Panama:':' carried 568, the 
" Commodore 194 , and the Pacific 4 500, total I, 262. In June the steamships Relbublic carried 
953, Commodore 900, Panama 1,o7o , Corle2  894 , Sanla Cruz : 2o8, Oregon 618, Sierra 
t Nevada ' 900, Pacific 400; schooners Giulietla 85, l(ossulh 8, Emma 35, Pilgrim 1I; 
_.... barks California i, Goldhunler 132 , Adelaide IOO, Live Yankee 2IO, Z). 1I[. Hall IO5, 
R, Passenger 250 , Ann Perry 1oo; the ship William took 15o and the brig F..4dams 
0 \ also took 19, a total of twenty-four vessels, carrying 7,149 passengers. In July the vessels 
carrying passengers were: steamships Orizaba 786, Cortez 614, Santa Cruz Boo, Oregon 
745, Brother flronathan 350, Sierra ATevada 900, Pacific 46o, Panama 128; schooners 
Ort°lan8 4, Alert 86, Frances 17relen 13, Golden State 25, eanette 2, Simon F. llunt 32, 
Giulietta io, Page 6, Pontiac I, Queen of the Isles 12, losalthia:':' I, lelborter I, Long 
cr. Im - Island 5, Susan Abigal 4 ; brigs Curacoa 4 o, Persevere 80, Ellen I-I. I.Vood 8, Quadd 3' telle 
well known colliers running between Brittsh Columbia and Puget Sound coal ports and California. In his long career on the Coast 
Captain Boyd has met with uniformly good luck, never having had a serious accident happen to a ship in his charge. He is at 
present living in San Francisco, enjoying the fruits of his many years on the water. 
• : The steamship Panama was one of the original three steamers built for the Pacific Coast trade after the discovery of gold 
had been announced in the East, the Californh and the Oregon preceding her. While running on the northern routes in the 
Pacific Mail lines, she was commanded by the Dalls, Watson, Wakeman, Whiting, Johnson and French. XVhen the Pacific Mail 
turned its northern routes over to Ben Holladay, the Panama was continued on this line until 1868, when she was sold to the 
Mexican Government, who fitted her up as a revenue and transport steamer and ran her on the west coast of Mexico under the 
name of Juarez. 
aThe °aciflc was a small sidewheel steamship of 876 tons burden. She was built in New York in I851, was two hundred 
and twenty-three feel long, thirty-three feet six inches beam, and seventeen feet hold. After coming out frorq the East she ran for a 
time on the Panama route, but with the decline of business was laid up for a while. On her arrival at Victoria in 1858 she was 
in charge of Capt. Robert Haley, with O. Van Duser, engineer. Haley was succeeded by Patterson, Burns, De Wolf, Metzger, 
Staples, Gage, Winsor, Stodhardt, Harrison, Sherwood, Sholl and Howell. In i86i, while in command of Staples en roule from 
Portland to Astoria, she sank in the Columbia near Coffin Rock, July I8th. The steamer Ezvpress took the fire engine down from 
Portland, and after considerable trouble she was raised and pumped out. A few repairs were rqade and she again went into service, 
but was retired in 1872 , only to be resurrected again in 1875 , when the Cassiar mining excitement brought out every old packet that 
could float. She arrived at Victoria on her first trip April Ioth, and a local paper, in commenting on her, said : " She has recently 
been rebuilt and is in excellent sea-going condition." Six months later she proved the untruthfulness of that statement by the 
most awful marine disaster that ever occurred on the Pacific Coast (see wreck of steamship Pacific, 1875). 
z The steamship Cortez was built in New York to run in the Independent Line with the steamer ICin)qeld Scott. She was of 
about 800 tons burden, length two hundred and twenty-five feet, with thirty-two and a half feet beam, and twenty-four feet depth of 
hold. She reached San Francisco on her first trip from Panama, October 7, 1852- With the decline of business on the Panama 
route she was sent on occasional voyages North. She arrived at Vancouver, Wash., on her first trip October 13, 1858 ' in 
command of Capt. T. H. Huntington, and continued running to the North, in charge of Huntington and Capt. C. C. Dall, until 1862. 
She was turned over with the rest of the fleet to Holladay & Flint when they entered the stearqship business in 186i, and was sold 
by them to parties who sent hr to China. She was subsequently destroyed by fire at Shanghai. 
S6The steamship Santa Cruz, which was placed on the northern route, in command of Fauntleroy and Staples, as an 
independent steamer, running via Crescent City, was of a later date than the Oregon and Panama, but was about as slow as the 
others. In 186I she was loaned to the United States Government for a few months and fitted out as a revenue cutter, sailing under 
the name General Sumner. When she left the Government service she was bought by San Francisco parties for 4o,ooo and taken 
to China, where she was sold for 8i,ooo. 
s The steamship Sierra Nevada was built in New York in I85 by Charles Morgan, who intended her for the Texas trade. 
She was afterward sold to Commodore Garrison, and made three trips to Chagres, then sailing from New York for San Francisco, 
December 12, 1852, in command of Capt. J. D. Wilson, who died at Panama and was succeeded by Captain Tanner, who completed 
the voyage. Her first work on arrival was on the San Juan route, in charge of Captain Blethen. She was one of the fastest of the old 
line of steamships, and, while she might be considered a slow packet to-day, in 1862 she. made a record from San Francisco to 
Portland of 72 hours, which was not beaten for several years. The steamer first came to Portland in charge of Dall, who was 
succeeded by Wakerqan, Conner, Johnston, Williams, Huntingdon, Fauntleroy, and others, of whom Conner was longest in 
command. During his time the old steamer carried 500 and 600 passengers per trip. When Holladay started the California, 
Oregon & Mexican Steamship Company the Sierra Nevada was one of its best steamers. She made her last voyage to the North 
about 1868, and the following year was placed on one of the southern routes out of San Francisco, and within a short time afterward 
struck a reef off Pedro Blanco and became a total wreck. 
8 With the Ortolan, as mate, was Daniel E. Farley, who, at the present writing, has spent over fifty years of his life in active 
service on the Pacific Coast. He was born in New York in 1833, and when nine years old rounded the Horn as cabin boy on the 
whaling ship Alciope, serving with her in the North until 1846, when she put into San Diego and he joined the whaler Illinois, 
on which he returned to Sag Harbor in 185o, corning out again in the schooner lobert ruce, in which his uncle was part owner. 
The truce arrived at San Francisco, October 12, 185o, ran for two years between the Bay City and the Sandwich Islands and was then 
sold to the Shoalwater Bay Oyster Company. On the first trip in their service the steward poisoned the captain and set fire to 
the vessel at Bruceport. On leaving the Bruce Captain Farley obtained a position on the schooner Edward L. Frost, sailing to 
Honolulu for two years. He then went whaling as boatsteerer on the Harriet Thompson, and on his return worked in the pilot 
service on San Francisco bar for a y.ear, when he resigned and followed the coasting trade until 1858. He left the Orlolan to go to the 
mines, but, with other disappointed gold-seekers, returned to San Francisco in the fall and soon found a berth as master of the 
schooner S. D. Bailey, which he handled until 1868, at which time he secured an interest in the Fannie Gilmore, credited with the 
fastest schooner trip ever made from Boston to San Francisco, coming out in one hundred and seven days. He ran the Yannie Gilmore 
until along in the eighties, when he took the schooner Fannie Dutard, running to Puget Sound, and remained with her until 89o, 
having been in charge when she picked up the otrly survivors from the lost St. Slephen. His next vessels were the schooners Zanpa 
and Orient, which he sailed in the northern trade until about two years ago, when he was given command of the fireboat Governor 
£V[arleham in San Francisco harbor. 
• u The schooner tosalthia, which the Tillamookers had built in 857, commenced running this year, but proved a very 
unprofitable speculation. She was a neat little craft 66 feet long, 17 feet beam, 6 feet 6 inches hold, and was owned by Elbridge 
Trask, James and Nelson Higginbotham. She was loaded with provisions and farm produce and sent to San Francisco in command 
of a man trained Harris to secure the balance of her equipment. Harris was a poor trader, and when the work was done he could 
not meet the bills. Accordingly the schooner was libeled and sold, and the owners lost both vessel and cargo.