Scott and his partners intended to build the fast boat on the Columbia river which could make the 110 mile distance from Portland, Oregon to Astoria in five hours.

[1] According to another report, as initially built, Telephone had sixteen staterooms, several closets and cupboards, a purser’s office, a dining room, and for and after cabins.

[5] When placed into service, Telephone was reported to have been capable of departing Astoria at 9:00 a.m., and reaching Portland at 2:00 p.m., two hours faster than all other vessels on the river.

[3][14] On July 2, 1887, Telephone ran downriver from Portland to Astoria in the unheard-of time of four hours, thirty-four and one-half minutes, even while heading into a gale during the last 40 miles.

[8][24] The pilot house steps had burned while Captain Scott stayed at the wheel, and he escaped through the window just before the entire upper works caved in.

[29] By the time these hasty notes were penciled the familiar tones of the whistle had been twice heard, and three o'clock the Telephone cast off and started for Portland on her first up trip, her flags and streamers fluttering in the breeze, the blue water lapping her lines and gleaming in the brilliant sunlight, and her decks crowded with passengers, a straight column of white steam from her white collared smoke stack, as with splashing wheel and rushing prow she started on her career, receiving a parting cheer from those who had remained to see her off.

[31] The Daily Astorian reported that "all along the river it was a continual ovation, people cheering as she passed, and at every landing place crowding aboard 'to see the new boat.

[38] In 1895, Telephone, owned by the Columbia River and Puget Sound Navigation Company, (CR&PSN) was competing with the older steamer R.R.

With Bailey Gatzert and Telephone running on alternate days to Portland, the city of Astoria received the finest steamboat service that it had ever had.

[43] On January 10, 2010, Follett, a diver, worked on clearing snags away from the bow of the Telephone, so that the barges could be brought alongside the sunken vessel.

[43] On January 25, 1892, Telephone was reported to be at the Alder Street dock in Portland, undergoing repairs to the boat’s upper works.

[45] In January 1892, while running upriver to Portland in a dense fog under the command of Pilot William Larkins, Telephone missed a navigation guide light and collided with the breakwater at the confluence of the Willamette and the Columbia rivers, ripping a large hole in the right side bow of the steamer.

[48] On the morning of Tuesday, February 28, 1895, Telephone collided with the smaller sternwheeler Northwest (135 feet; 324 gross tons[49]) at Portland in foggy conditions.

When they swung out of the dock at Portland, threshed spray as their wheels reversed, and started down the river, they were worth watching; long, lean, clean-lined, tall stacks throwing a pennant of smoke, a banner with the boat’s name on the jackstaff, and the national ensign at the king-post or stern, they cut the water away on either side, leaving long arrowheads of waves making toward the shore and a straight wake of froth behind.

Whitcomb and chief engineer Newton Scott, in races on the Columbia river with the large iron-hulled side-wheel steamer Alaskan.

Baughman, of Telephone, and Fred Sherman, of Bailey Gatzert, were arrested by harbormaster Ben Biglin, and charged with exceeding the 8 mile per hour speed limit on the Willamette River.

[58] The combined wakes of the two steamers had, it was charged, so rocked the freighter Arabla, which had been moored at the flour mills, that the cable holding Arabia to the pier had parted, and it was only with two hours of effort that the ship was kept from floating downriver.

[59] In November 1905, Telephone and two other steamers, Charles R. Spencer and Dalles City cast off lines at Portland and raced down the Willamette River.

[60] The wakes created by the racing boats caused the British steamship Agincourt to rock so much that its stern lines broke and its gangway and railings were splintered.

[66] Once the reconstruction work was completed, the plan was for the Arrow Navigation Company to take it around the Olympic Peninsula to operate on Puget Sound, with the exact route not publicly known as of March 1903.

[70] Work remaining, which had to be done upriver at the Pacquet yard at the foot of Clay Street, included painting and furnishing of cabins and staterooms.

[83] On July 15, 1905, Telephone was reported to still at the Haseltine dock, having been freshly painted with steam up in the boiler, although it was still a mystery as to what route the boat would be placed on.

[85] On September 19, 1905, Telephone was advertised as making daily runs to Cascade Locks, Oregon, departing the Oak Street dock in Portland at 8:30 a.m. (9:00 a.m. on Sundays).

[91] The boat remained out of service as of September 21, 1906, lying at Portland at the Duniway dock on the east side of the Willamette River.

[94] The boat would operate between Portland and The Dalles, Oregon in place of the Joseph Kellogg, which the Regulator Line was returning to its owners.

[96] The Regulator Line intended to run the boat to the Dalles three times a week until Bailey Gatzert could be rebuilt and brought into service.

[101] By the time that the Columbia was reached, Telephone had a lead of several boat lengths over Telegraph, and had lashed a broom, the traditional symbol of victory in a steamboat race, to its jackstaff.

[105] On July 14, 1909, representatives of the Western Pacific Railroad put down some earnest money on the Telephone, with the deal anticipated to close the following day.

[107] The steamer reached Astoria at 2:30 p.m. the same day, and was scheduled to depart the following morning for San Francisco in the company of the steam schooner Yosemite.

[107] Telephone was expected to make the entire trip under its own power, but as riverine vessel and not having been built for operation on the open sea, if heavy weather were encountered or an engine failure should occur, Yosemite would be able render assistance.