The keel was laid by the 13th of July, and on the 12th of August Pioneer was launched and brought alongside the ship.
Although considered by the company to be too slow, she was loaded for a voyage up to Sacramento, starting on the 17th of August, 1849.
The first officer of the Edward Everett, William V. Wells was in command, Alfred N. Proctor as engineer and S. P. Barker as assistant.
When she arrived at Sacramento on the early morning of 19 August 1849: Pioneer was intended to run on the Sacramento River, and was a side-wheeler, 70 feet in length, 25 feet beam, with an eight horse power engine that made "4 knots an hour, against wind and tide" and would normally carry forty passengers in her cabin and on her decks.
[1] Pioneer soon after met its end, holed by a snag and sunk on the Feather River.