El Dorado was a 153 ton side-wheel steamship, was ordered by Captain J. W. Wright and built by Thomas Collyer, it was originally to be named ''Caribbean'', however she was sold while still on the stocks to

Howland & Aspinwall Howland & Aspinwall was a merchant firm based in New York City in the 1830s and 1840s. It specialized in the Pacific Ocean trade, especially the importing of goods from China. It is best known for taking a pioneering role in the financing of clipp ...

, who were building up a fleet of steamers on the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. T. C. Purdy, Report on Steam Navigation in the United States, Census Reports Tenth Census: Report on the agencies of transportation in the United States, including the statistics of railroads, steam navigation, canals, telegraphs, and telephones, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1883, pp.653-724, Pacific Coast, pp.680-689
/ref>Jerry MacMullen, Paddlewheel Days In California, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1970.

Aspinwall Steam Transportation Line

After news of the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

was arrived, George W. Aspinwall, of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

then had Thomas Young in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington ( Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...

, have ''El Dorado'' rigged as a 3 masted schooner to sail around

Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramírez ...

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

. Upon reaching

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

in February 1850, Aspinwall had

Domingo Marcucci Domingo Marcucci Jugo (Maracaibo, 1827 - San Francisco, 1905), was a Venezuelan born 49er, shipbuilder and shipowner in San Francisco, California. He owned or captained some of the many steamships, steamboats, ferries, and sailing ships he built a ...

take down the masts and rigging to convert it for running as a steamboat on the

Sacramento River The Sacramento River ( es, Río Sacramento) is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento–S ...

between San Francisco and

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

. The Aspinwall Line had ''El Dorado'' running twice weekly on this run against the 326.75 ton '' Mckim'' and 755 ton ''

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

'' of Simmons, Hutchinson & Company. By that spring the ''El Dorado'' had been switched to the run to Stockton making connections with the ''Captain Sutter'' which was put on the run up the

San Joaquin River The San Joaquin River (; es, Río San Joaquín) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suis ...

to Grayson City and the

Tuolumne River The Tuolumne River (Yokutsan: ''Tawalimnu'') flows for through Central California, from the high Sierra Nevada to join the San Joaquin River in the Central Valley. Originating at over above sea level in Yosemite National Park, the Tuolumne ...

to Tuolumne City with the ''Georgiana''. The steamer ''Captain Sutter'' was run daily on this route until June, 1850, when she was sent to run in the Sacramento River above Sacramento. Faced with the mushrooming numbers of steamers appearing on all the rivers, the Aspinwall Steam Transportation Line offered the ''El Dorado'', ''Captain Sutter'', its other steamboats and its other boats and barges for sale from November, 1850.Daily Alta California, Volume 1, Number 296, 24 November 1850 P.1 Col. 1

Later Owners

''El Dorado'' was purchased by June 1851 by the San Francisco Towboat Company run by James Blair formerly manager of the Aspinwall Line in San Francisco. ''El Dorado'' and steam tugs ''Firefly'' and ''Redding'' were used for towing ships in San Francisco Bay, "to the heads at all times or to any part of the bay and harbor." Daily Alta California, Volume 2, Number 181, 9 June 1851, P1C2
SAN FRANCISCO TOWBOAT COMPANY. Steamer EL DORADO; steam tug FIREFLY, steam tug REDDING. Ship, towed to the heads at all times or to any part of the bay and harbor. Orders left at the office of JAMES BLAIR, Agent, Corner Sacramento and Front sts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:El Dorado (side-wheeler) Steamboats of California 1849 ships Sidewheel steamboats of California Passenger ships of the United States Merchant ships of the United States California Gold Rush