Elizabeth Owens was a schooner, built in 1857, at the new San Francisco shipyard of shipbuilder at Steamboat Point where 4th Street met Mission Bay. She was the first ship built in the yard and was named for his wife. Under Captain Albert Bogard, her first voyage was to obtain green turtle and was the first ship to trade at Santa Catalina Island. From 1858, she was used in the Colorado River trade and in the Gulf of California carrying passengers and cargo: Elizabeth Owens was later sold to the government for the use of the coastal survey department.