Steamboats of the Oregon Coast

Burns built the sternwheel steamboat Rogue River in Portland, and brought her down the coast to compete against Hume's operation.

Mary D. Hume passed through several owners and was still in operation as late as 1939, when she was the oldest commercial vessel in service in the Pacific Northwest.

Coos Bay is a large and mostly shallow harbor on Oregon's southwest coast, to the north of the Coquille River valley.

It is the major harbor on the west coast of the United States between San Francisco and the mouth of the Columbia River.

Captain Godfrey Seymour began steamboat operations on the Umpqua River with Raftsman, later adding Washington, Swan, and Enterprise.

This was sufficient to persuade Congress to allocate $70,000 for channel clearance of the Umpqua, even though no other steamboat ever again ran up to Roseburg.

The roads were bad or nonexistent at the time, so the only way to the seaside hotels at Newport was to cross the Yaquina Bay by steamer.

[2] The Siletz River runs into the Pacific about 30 miles north of Yaquina Bay, near the town of Taft now part of Lincoln City.

Kern brought in the small steamer Tonquin, 64' long, built at Portland, to act as a cannery tender and supply vessel.

This boat was probably more of an ocean-going vessel than the typical mosquito fleet craft, as she was sold to a Hawaii firm and voyaged there herself in 19 days without mishap.

Bay Ocean was the largest motor passenger vessel built to that date on the Pacific Coast.

As possibly the extreme example, the small (14 tons) gasoline-propeller Welcome, built 1919, was on the run up the Coos River from Marshfield to Allegany until 1948.

[1] When steamboat service ended on the Coquille, at least three steamers, Myrtle, Telegraph, and Dora were all beached on the river near Bandon.

A large number of boats of all types were built on these waters, powered by various means, including steam, gasoline, and diesel engines.