Scott successfully ran Fleetwood on the Astoria and Cascade routes on the Columbia River, in opposition to the would-be monopoly of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, then under the control of Henry Villard.

Fleetwood outran the monopoly's steamers by two hours on the Astoria run, and built up so much business that Captain Scott had to replace her with the crack sternwheeler Telephone.

[4] Captain Scott trimmed up Fleetwood ‘s appearance a bit, not entirely to the liking of historian Newell: The resulting striped paneling along her house, ginger-bread work on her cabin roof, and high-pointed pilot house roof crowned with a gilt ball, all gave the sturdy little Fleetwood an unfortunate resemblance to a forest cottage in a Grimm’s fairy tale book.

On the way up, Captain Scott’s fancy trim work on the deckhouse caught fire, but the crew was able to extinguish it and Fleetwood rounded Cape Flattery and reached Neah Bay just 24 hours after leaving the Columbia Bar.

[10] When Captain Scott expanded operations up to Puget Sound, he bought back Fleetwood and put her on the Seattle-Tacoma run with the new and eventually much more famous propeller steamer Flyer.