PS Eliza Anderson
Eliza Anderson | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | Eliza Anderson |
| Route | Puget Sound, Strait of Georgia, Fraser River, Admiralty Inlet, Strait of Juan de Fuca, Alaska, Columbia River |
| Builder | Samuel Farman's yard, foot of Couch Street, Portland, Oregon |
| Laid down | Early 1857 |
| Launched | November 27, 1858 |
| Maiden voyage | January 2, 1859 |
| In service | 1859-1898 (with significant intermediate periods out of service) |
| Out of service | various times, finally beached and abandoned 1898 at Dutch Harbor |
| Fate | Abandoned 1898, Dutch Harbor, Alaska |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | inland steamship |
| Tonnage | 276 |
| Length | 140 ft (43 m) |
| Beam | 25.5 ft (8 m) |
| Depth | 8.8 ft (3 m) depth of hold |
| Decks | three (freight, passenger, boat) |
| Installed power | low-pressure boiler, single-cylinder walking beam steam engine |
| Propulsion | sidewheels |
| Sail plan | schooner (auxiliary) |
![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:"Eliza_Anderson,"_steamboat,_ca._1880_-_DPLA_-_8bb2115d069eeb06b8aa673716bc12dc.jpg){kind=link}
The PS Eliza Anderson operated from 1858 to 1898 mainly on Puget Sound, the Strait of Georgia, and the Fraser River but also for short periods in Alaska. She was generally known as the Old Anderson and was considered slow and underpowered even for the time. Even so, it was said of her that "no steamboat ever went slower and made money faster." She played a role in the Underground Railroad and had a desperate last voyage to Alaska as part of the Klondike Gold Rush.