General Miles was a steamship constructed in 1882 which served in various coastal areas of the states of Oregon and Washington, as well as British Columbia and the territory of Alaska.

[5] The ISN had been organized in 1875 by Lewis A. Loomis, Jacob Kamm and two others, for the purpose of developing transportation to, from, and on the Long Beach Peninsula, located on the north side of the mouth of the Columbia River.

The company's first vessel was the General Canby, a 110 ft (33.53 m) steam tug built in 1875 at South Bend, Washington.

[2] By the early 1880s, demand on the Columbia river route, which ran from Astoria, Oregon to Ilwaco, Washington, was increasing beyond the General Canby's legal passenger capacity, which was 75 in summer and 40 in winter.

[5] The General Miles was capable of multiple uses, being equipped with towing bits for tugboat work as well as being designed to accommodate 125 passengers and handle 150 tons of freight.

This improved steamship service helped popularize the Long Beach Peninsula as a destination resort area for Portland, Oregon, which was then growing rapidly in population.

Gray was in command of General Miles at the salvage of the then almost new steamer Queen of the Pacific (330 ft (100.58 m))[6] in 1883 when that vessel grounded on the Clatsop Spit.

Five tugs were called out, including General Miles, Pioneer, Brenham, Astoria, and Columbia, and with great effort they were able to save the ship.

[8] ISN kept the General Miles on the Astoria-Ilwaco route until 1889, when the vessel was sold to Portland Coast and Steamship Company and transferred to Coos Bay to operate as a tug.

On March 19, 1897, at 2:30 a.m., bound for Mary Island, Alaska, Willapa was proceeding in a heavy snow storm in Seaforth Channel, a part of the Inside Passage, when the vessel struck ground on Regatta Reef.

Although originally considered a total loss, later Willapa was purchased from the underwriters by Canadian interests, removed from the reef, and repaired.

[5][10][11] During 1903, the rapidly growing Puget Sound Navigation Co. acquired Bellingham Transportation Company, but Dode and Willapa did not go to PSN operational control until the spring of 1904.

[5][15] Shortly after this incident Bellingham was transferred to the control of the Inland Navigation Company, which was owned by businessman Charles E. Peabody and associates.

[2] This ship, when rebuilt and in service as Bellingham in the early 1900s, was reported to have a "ghost whistle" which was described as a low moaning sound heard when the vessel was working through a heavy sea.

The powerless vessel was taken to the King and Winge shipyard in West Seattle which converted the ship into an unpowered sailing barge which still retained the name Bellingham.

The vessel was taken to the Lake Union Drydock and Machine Works in Seattle where a 200 horsepower (150 kW) Fairbanks-Morse semi-diesel engine was installed.

The upper works were also extensively reconfigured and the vessel was again equipped to run from Seattle to Ketchikan and other ports of the Inside Passage.

In the late 1920s the vessel was briefly owned by a Ketchikan concern known as Citizen's Light and Power Company, which was a part of the public utility empire assembled by businessman Wilbur B. Foshay (1881-1957).

The vessel then was presented to the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society to be used in the annual Seafair celebration in Seattle, to be burned in a public ceremony in the summer of 1950 as "Neptune's" barge.

The vessel was loaded up with fireworks and other inflammable materials, and towed into Elliott Bay by the tug Goliah and set on fire.