Coquille served as a passenger vessel from 1908 to 1916, when the boat was transferred to the lower Columbia River.

On September 16, 1909, a rival boat, the motor vessel Wolverine collided with Coquille, at Johnson's Mill.

[9] Unfortunately this made the vessel top-heavy, so that when the steamer came around the sharp bend in the river near Prosper, all passengers had to move to the lower cabin to stabilize the boat.

[9] The upper deck was added under the direction of Hank Dunham, who also had a more powerful engine installed at the same time.

[3] On December 23, 1912, it was reported that a child, a young girl, had fallen overboard near the Lyons and Johnson mill at Bandon.

[11] The steamer was reported to have Morris chairs for passengers, electric lighting and "many other conveniences of modern river travel.

"[11] On the afternoon of July 11, 1913, the citizens of Bandon "deported" a newspaper editor, Dr. Bailey K. Leach, a chiropractor, because he had published editorials sympathetic to the Industrial Workers of the World, who were rumored to be planning to "invade" Bandon, by placing Dr. Leach on board Coquille, bound for Coquille City, with orders never to return.

Practically the entire citizenship was present to witness his departure ..."[12] On February 18, 1914, Coquille was reported to be back in service after having been recently raised.

[15] The other Panter boats were the gasoline launches Pronto, Norma and Maple, and the sternwheelers Telegraph, Dora, and Myrtle.

[14] On January 25, 1916, it was reported that the previous week a sale of the Coquille to the Shaver Transportation Company, a Columbia River towing concern, had been concluded.

[3] On February 17, 1916, Coquille departed Bandon at 9:50 am.,[16] passed by Coos Bay en route to the Columbia River.

[18] Shaver planned to reconstruct Coquille for towing by, among other things, eliminating the passenger accommodations, cutting away the after section of the vessel's deckhouse, leaving one stateroom on each side, and lowering the smokestack to allow the boat to pass under bridges.

[3] Coquille burned coal on the trip to the Columbia, but Shaver planned to convert the vessel into an oil-burner.

[3] It was reported that Shaver intended to use Coquille on the lower Columbia river to bring logs out of creeks and sloughs, so that larger vessels could tow them to Portland.

[16] Although the length and beam of the vessel were unaffected, this reconstruction reduced the overall size of Coquille to 53 gross and 36 net tons.

[21] On December 4, 1919, a lawsuit was filed against the Knappton Mill company in federal district court, which sought $8,756.37 in damages.

[22] Coquille was still registered as being in service in 1935, with a home port of Astoria, under the ownership of the Knappton Towing Co.[23] Crew at that time was shown as five, and the vessel's machinery was listed as generating 225 horsepower.