page_title: T. J. Potter
section_title: Operations on Puget Sound
hierarchical_section_title: T. J. Potter / Operations on Puget Sound
caption_attribution_description: English: This is the Oregon Improvement company dock at Seattle, Washington in 1891. The smaller sidewheel steamer on the left is the North Pacific. The large sidewheel steamer nearest to the wharf is probably the T.J. Potter. Other smaller steamers, apparently mostly sternwheelers, cannot be identified.
context_page_description: The T.J. Potter was a paddle steamer that operated in the Northwestern United States. The boat was launched in 1888. Her upper cabins came from the steamboat Wide West. This required some modification, because the T.J. Potter was a side-wheeler, whereas the Wide West had been a stern-wheeler. The boat's first owner was the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. The T. J. Potter was one of the few side-wheeler boats that operated on the Columbia River.
context_section_description: After that, she was transferred to Puget Sound to compete with another famous steamboat, the Bailey Gatzert, which was owned by the Seattle Steam Navigation and Transportation Company.  The Bailey was a stern-wheeler, and did better in the Sound than the sidewheeler Potter, which rolled from side to side in swells, raising first one paddle wheel then the other out of the water.
  Even so, the T.J. Potter was one of the fastest steamboats on Puget Sound, and is reported in 1890 to have bested the famous sternwheeler Bailey Gatzert in a race.  The Potter was also reported to have set a record time of 82 minutes on the run from Seattle to Tacoma. While operating out of Puget Sound, the Potter, along with many other local steamboats, helped fight the Great Seattle Fire of 1889:
caption: T.J. Potter in center, with smaller sidewheel steamer North Pacific on left, at Seattle, Washington, 1891
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