When Anne Goodall Soden and the children travelled from Honolulu to Oregon to join Bartholomew, according to her granddaughter Emma Hovenden Jones, they joined the Lot Whitcomb from St. Helens to Willamette Falls (now Oregon City). The exact date of their journey is unknown, although they must have started out from Honolulu after 13 July 1850. It seems likely that they were amongst the Lot Whitcomb’s earliest passengers. The adult fare was probably around $15 for this stretch, exclusive of board.
The Lot Whitcomb was one of the earliest steamboats serving the Columbia. Built at Milwaukie and named after its founder (also her owner), she was regarded as a fine and elegant ship, described as a hybrid of Mississippi and Eastern design. The cabins and dining hall were tastefully decorated, and a separate ladies’ cabin was available. She was also designed for speed, and could run at up to 12 miles an hour.
She was launched on Christmas Day 1850 with great ceremony, ready to make the run between Milwaukie and Astoria, returning from Pacific City to Oregon City. However, soon after she was grounded on a reef at the mouth of the Clackamas River for two weeks until coffers were built to get her floated off.
Aafter this ignominious start, she showed her paces when she managed the trip from Astoria to Oregon City in ten hours, and from Milwaukie to Oregon City in less than an hour. There was great rivalry between the steamers at the time, and the Lot Whitcomb raced and narrowly beat the Willamette between Portland and Astoria in March 1851.
In 1854, the Lot Whitcomb was sold for use on the Sacramento River in California (and renamed the Annie Abernethy).
[Reference: Stern-Wheelers up Columbia by Randall V. Mills, Pacific Books 1947]