"[6] Albany was 127 ft (38.7 m) long exclusive of the extension over the main deck, called the "fantail", on which the stern-wheel was mounted.

[1] The steamer had a beam (width) of 27 ft (8.2 m), exclusive of the long protective timbers installed on the sides of the boat at the top of the hull, called the guards.

[6] During one trip in August, the low water period on the Willamette, a reporter on board wrote later that the steamer "actually navigated some parts like wet gravel.

[9] A connection was made at Oregon City with either of the sternwheelers Senator or Alert running daily (Sunday excepted) from Portland.

[10] The Morning Oregonian said at the time: "The boats are all that could be desired, and the boatmen skillful and very energetic, but they can't run on dry land.

The sternwheeler Fannie Patton, which had been running from Oregon City to Salem, was taken out of service, with the Albany taking its place.

[16] The small amount of downriver freight was said to have been caused by the high prices for wheat and wool in the spring of the year, which brought those commodities into the market, leaving not much left in the countryside to ship.

[18] Albany was then owned by the Oregon Steamship Company, which also ran other steamers on the upper Willamette from Oregon City: Alice to Corvallis twice a week, Dayton, to the cities of Dayton, Lafayette, and McMinnville, all on the Yamhill River, and Fannie Patton, to Albany, twice a week.

[1][8][19] The steamer had been proceeding up the Willamette River, with no cargo on board, and had just passed the confluence of the Long Tom, when it hit a snag.

[20] The initial report was that the captain managed to beach the steamer before it filled with water, the damage was small, and readily reparable.

[21] The Oregon Steamship Company intended to install the machinery into one of two new shallow-draft freight steamers it was planning on building, in the middle of March, 1875, for the upper Willamette trade.