User:Asiaticus/sandbox/Pioneer (sidewheeler 1849)

Pioneer was the the first steamboat in California, besides the Sitka, was a sidewheel steamboat brought out in pieces from Boston, and put together at the West Point, at Benicia, and launched there in August, 1849, by the "Edward Everett Company". She was a side-wheeler, 70 feet in length, 25 feet beam, with an eight horse power engine that made "4 knots an hour, against wind and tide" and would normally carry forty passengers in her cabin and on her decks. In September, she made one trip to Sacramento and back, then was sold to Simmons, Hutchinson & Company for service between Sacramento and the Yuba River.