A ships carpenter, David C. Robinson, came to the Colorado River in 1850 on the army transport schooner, Invincible commanded by captain Alfred H. Wilcox.
He accompanied Lieutenant George Derby when he attempted to reach Fort Yuma with supplies by boat.
He returned in 1854 serving as mate on the crew of George Alonzo Johnson's steamboat General Jesup.
He later ran the boatyard at Port Isabel, Sonora where he maintained the company steamboats and built the Gila, launched in January 1873, (later rebuilt in 1899 as the Cochan).
later in 1873, he quit the Colorado River, moving his family to Northern California, and captained a boat on Clear Lake.