Captain Sutter (Sternwheeler)

Captain Sutter, sometimes mistakenly called the Sutter, or the John A. Sutter, it was a stern-wheel steamboat, built in Philadelphia, brought around Cape Horn, to California, the first to run from San Francisco to , from late November 1849.

Originally constructed in Philadelphia for George W. Aspinwall, brother of William Henry Aspinwall, president of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. Captain Sutter was a single engine, stern-wheel steamer, 90 feet long, 18 feet on the beam, and a 6 foot deep hold. It was knocked down and shipped to California, where it was the first steamboat built by Domingo Marcucci at his new boatyard on the beach of Yerba Buena Cove at Happy Valley, at the foot of Folsom Street, east of Beale Street. Marcucci's company assembled the Captain Sutter in six weeks. Captained by Issac Warren, it was the first steamboat that ran between San Francisco and Stockton, beginning in late November 1849. The Captain Sutter earned $300,000 in its first eight months on the route.

The Captain Sutter ran twice weekly to Stockton for the Aspinwall Steam Transportation Line. By February 1850, the Line had added the El Dorado running to Sacramento and the Sacramento running to San Jose, both twice weekly. By that summer the El Dorado made the run to Stockton making connections with the Captain Sutter which was put on the run up the San Joaquin River to Grayson City and the Tuolumne River 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. The Georgiana continued until low water that summer stranded her and ended steamboat runs to Toulumne City for several years.

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