On completion Webb sold the vessel to parties who intended to enter it into the Sacramento River trade, then booming because of the California Gold Rush.

They then set out for California, which in that time required a voyage around Cape Horn, at the southern tip of South America.

Goliah arrived in San Francisco, after 279 days, on January 21, 1851, carrying 13 passengers from Panama City.

[1] Within days of its arrival, Charles Minturn, sent Goliah with passengers to the Gold Bluffs, on the northwest coast of California.

[3] Shortly after its return from the Gold Bluffs on February, Goliah was advertised for service doing what it was designed to do, towing ships from the sea to any point on San Francisco Bay.

During this time, Goliah was engaged in fierce competition with the New World, another steamer brought around from the East Coast in defiance of creditors.

At one point, this competition produced gunfire between the passengers and crews of the two steamboats when Goliah, or so it is alleged, attempted to ram and sink the New World.

Goliah was soon bought off by the California Steam Navigation Company, which was building a monopoly on Sacramento river shipping, and as a result was then placed on the ocean routes.

In the spring of 1854, Goliah rescued the passengers of the steamship Yankee Blade which had wrecked off Point Concepcion.

Goliah was subsequently shortened, and ran for many years as a towboat in San Francisco harbor, finally passing into the hands of the Wrights, a family of ship and riverboat captains.

After a short time in this service she was abandoned and laid over on the Mission Bay mudflats in San Francisco until 1864, when Captain James Griffiths (1840–1887) fixed the steamer up as a towboat once more.

Goliah was bought by Pope & Talbot in 1871, and arrived at Port Gamble on 22 March 1871, in charge of Capt.