Captain H. B. Lovejoy, mate of Zenobia, was for many years a well-known maritime pilot on Puget Sound.

After a short stay in the mines he began sailing out of San Francisco to southern ports.

He was for several years master of the bark Chalcedony, a famous northern trader in her day, and in 1858 was in the service of the Russian-American Trading Company, running between San Francisco and Alaska on Zenobia.

He continued in this service until Zenobia was wrecked near San Francisco, when he went to Puget Sound and commenced piloting and steamboating.

Zenobia, which had been sailing between Alaska and San Francisco in the service of the Russian-American Ice Company for several years, was lost off Point Bonita, California, on April 20, 1858, while attempting to sail into the entrance to San Francisco Bay without a pilot.