Advertisement for Surprise and other steamers of the Upper Willamette Transportation Line, published December 3, 1859.
History
Name	Surprise
Route	Willamette River
Builder	Cochrane, Cassidy & Gibson
In service	1857
Fate	Dismantled
Notes	Engines went to the steamer Senator.
General characteristics
Type	inland steamship
Tonnage	120 gross tons
Length	130 ft (40 m), and after reconstruction, 191 ft (58 m)
Beam	22 ft (6.7 m)
Depth	4.6 ft (1.4 m) depth of hold
Decks	three (freight, passenger, boat)
Installed power	twin steam engines, horizontally mounted, each with bore of 14 in (36 cm) and stroke of 60 in (1.5 m).
Propulsion	stern-wheel

Surprise was a steamboat which operated on the upper Willamette River from 1857 to 1864.

Surprise was built in 1857 at Canemah, Oregon by Cochrane, Cassidy & Gibson, who had built the James Clinton the year before.^[1] Surprise, reportedly a well-built boat, was 130 ft (40 m), feet long, probably exclusive of the extension of the main deck over the stern, called the fantail, on which the stern-wheel was mounted.^[1] The beam was 22 ft (6.7 m) feet and the depth of hold was 4.6 ft (1.4 m) feet.^[2] The steamer’s registered size was 120 tons, a measure of size, not weight.^[1]

Surprise was a sternwheeler, and the wheel was turned by twin steam engines, horizontally mounted, each with bore of 14 in (36 cm) and stroke of 60 in (1.5 m).^[2]

Surprise was operated on the upper Willamette River by Capt. Theodore T. Wygant.^[1] Other partners in the boat were Absalom F. Hedges, Oregon City merchant, William. C. Dement^[1] & Co., Charles C. Felton, J. Harding, and Robert Patton.^[1] In April 1858, Surprise transported the native American leader Tecumtum, also known as Old John, to Fort Vancouver where he was to be held in custody.^[3]

As of November 1, 1859, Surprise was running under the control of the Upper Willamette Transportation Line.^[4] Other boats controlled by the line were Onward, Elk, and Relief.^[4] In December 1859, the line advertised that one of its four boats would leave Canemeh for Corvallis, Oregon twice a week, and for Eugene City once a week, with freight and passage “at the usual rates.”^[4] Theodore Wygant (b.1831) was the Oregon City agent for the line.^[4]

Surprise operated on the upper Willamette until 1864 when it was dismantled and the engines installed in a new steamer, Senator.^[1]

• Affleck, Edward L. (2000). A Century of Paddlewheelers in the Pacific Northwest, the Yukon, and Alaska. Vancouver, BC: Alexander Nicholls Press. ISBN 0-920034-08-X.
• Corning, Howard McKinley (1973). Willamette Landings -- Ghost Towns of the River (2nd ed.). Portland, OR: Oregon Historical Society. ISBN 0875950426.
• Mills, Randall V. (1947). Sternwheelers up Columbia -- A Century of Steamboating in the Oregon Country. Lincoln NE: University of Nebraska. ISBN 0-8032-5874-7. LCCN 77007161.
• Timmen, Fritz (1973). Blow for the Landing -- A Hundred Years of Steam Navigation on the Waters of the West. Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers. ISBN 0-87004-221-1. LCCN 73150815.
• Wright, E.W., ed. (1895). Lewis & Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Portland, OR: Lewis and Dryden Printing Co. LCCN 28001147.

• "Historic Oregon Newspapers". University of Oregon.