Matthew McDowell

His three sons, Albert(George Alexander), Robert, and John, served as engineers and eventually all qualified as masters.

Once a vessel he was sleeping in was nearly run down by a large steamer, so in 1905 Captain McDowell bought 80 acres (320,000 m2) of land on Brown's Point.

His boats served landings Dumas Bay, Lakota, Adelaide, Redondo, Des Moines, Zenith, Maury, Portage, Chautauqua, Vashon Island, Tacoma and Seattle.

[2] In early 1890s, McDowell operated the propeller steamer Quickstep (built at Astoria in 1877) as a towboat on Puget Sound.

Defiance (I) was the first of six steamboats launched by Captain McDowell, all beginning with the letter "D" and all built at the Crawford and Reid ship yard.