Telegraph was a sternwheel steamboat that was operated on the Coquille River on the southern Oregon coast from 1914 to 1927.

Telegraph is perhaps best known for having been in involved in collisions with rival steamboats, apparently as a result of fierce competition for business on the Coquille River.

[1] At 96 gross tons, Telegraph was the largest vessel ever built for service on the Coquille River.

[1] Maximum passenger capacity was variously reported as 100,[2] 150 to 200,[4] or 200[5] Telegraph's sternwheel was driven by twin horizontally-mounted steam engines, generating a total of 250 horsepower (190 kW).

[5] However, on August 21, 1915, it was reported that Telegraph was owned by a competing concern, the Farmer's Transportation Company.

[6] On May 5, 1914 it was announced that Telegraph was complete and would enter into service the following morning, May 6, 1914, on the run between Bandon and Myrtle Point.

[10] On March 16, 1915, formal reports of the collision had reached the office of the U.S. Steamboat Inspection Service in Portland, Oregon.

[11] On the Tuesday and Wednesday before March 26, 1915, a hearing was held on the collision before U.S. steamboat inspectors George F. Fuller and E.S.

McCloskey, an experienced river man who had mostly worked on the route between Coquille City and Myrtle Point.

White,[16] of Dispatch, attributed the collision to "pure cussedness" on the part of Captain Panter.

[14] The points on which they agreed were that the steamers had been at Prosper, when Telegraph was backing away from the wharf, and then struck Dispatch on the left side near the rear of the vessel, where the engines were located.

[15] Automobile roads were built in the Coquille Valley in the 1920s, which quickly eliminated most of the demand for riverine passenger and freight service.

[17] In 1924, the closing of the Nestil Milk Condensing Plant in Bandon took away a major remaining customer for the boat.

[17] In September 1992, five blackline plans on five sheets of Telegraph were donated to the Oregon Historical Society.