VOL. 3
16TH & EXCHANGE STREET, ASTORIA, OREGON 97103
NO. 3 GEORGIANA
Of all the passenger steamers that ran on the Lower River, few are better remembered than the lovely Georgmna. She began her career in the last flush years of passenger service between Portland and Astoria, and outlasted all her competitors on the run. A sleek, 135-foot propeller steamer, the Georgmna was launched at Joseph Supple's Portland shipyard in 1914. Built for the Harkins Transportation Company, she was named for Mrs. H. L. Pittock, wife of the Oregonmn publisher, and Mrs. Anna Hosford, wife of the vessel's first captain. Her narrow, white-painted hull and trim, yacht-like appearance caused considerable comment on the waterfront. Nor did her performance belie her looks. While she was not elegant, she was fast, and few boats could outrun her. Speed and economy had supplanted luxury as the keys to success on the river. During her early years, the Georgmna prospered. She made the downriver run daily, leaving Portland at 7:00 a.m., arriving at Astoria around one o'clock, and tying up in Portland sometime after 9:00 p.m. When the passenger trade dropped off with increased rail service, she became primarily a freight boat, making stops at landings all along the Lower River. She continued to carry passengers at low rates. Through the early Thirties, when all the other passenger boats had been driven from the river by automobiles and hard times, the Georgmna kept going. In 1936, however, operating at a heavy loss, she was withdrawn from service. She won a brief reprieve the following year, when she was renamed Lake Bonneville and put on an excursion run to Bonneville Dam. Finally, after several years of idleness and neglect, she was beached and abandoned at Sauvie Island.