Georgiana (steamboat) - Operations On Columbia River

Operations On Columbia River

Georgiana was considered to be a fast boat, and in 1920, made the 110 mile Portland-Astoria run in five hours and forty-five minutes, with five landings. Her principal competitor in the early 1920s was a similarly designed steam propeller ''Astorian''(ship) (ex Nisqually), built in 1911 to serve the Tacoma-Olympia route, and brought around to the Columbia River in 1918. The big paddle-wheelers had all disappeared by then, but the smaller Georgiana and ''Astorian''(ship) continued to service the small towns along the Columbia that had no road or rail access, like Cathlamet, Pillar Rock, Eureka, Skamokawa, and Brookfield, often racing each other on the same schedule between Portland and Astoria.

In 1921, Astorian broke her shaft at full speed, sustaining serious damage which took her out of service until she was returned to Puget Sound for repair. This left Georgiana and the other Harkins Transportation Company boats (Undine, Lurline, and Madeline (ex Joseph Kellogg) as the only major steamboats on the Columbia River, although Iralda, a lighter steam propeller, was placed on the Astoria run in 1921 to compete with Georgiana. From 1918 to 1932, Georgiana's captain was John L. Starr, who logged over 650,000 miles on board.