[1] It was equipped with an 80-horsepower steam engine capable of carrying up to 70 tons of cargo while drawing only 2 feet of water.
North subsequently disassembled and shipped in sections by sea to the estuary of the Colorado River.
There North unloaded, reassembled and launched in it in December, 1855 under the command of Captain Isaac Polhamus.
More powerful than Johnson's first steamboat, the side-wheeler General Jesup, it made faster runs between the estuary and Fort Yuma with larger cargoes against strong currents in the river.
Its engine and boiler was removed and used to equip the new, larger stern-wheeler Colorado that was built and launched under the guns of Fort Yuma, in Arizona City, for fear of an attack by Confederate raiders.