The appropriation under which Ives was working was one which had originally been made for Johnson, after a visit of his to Washington, but from several causes it had been switched over to the War Department.

Captain Johnson, therefore, was determined to rob Ives of the glory of being the first to take a steamboat to the head of navigation, and he did it with a steamboat much larger than that of Ives which failed to pass Black Canyon.

The General Jesup, named after the quarter-master general of the Army, was 108 feet long, 28 feet beam, and drew 2 feet, 6 inches of water.

She had exploded in August, 1854, but had been thoroughly repaired.

On this down trip from the head of steamboat navigation she met with another accident, running on "a large rolling stone and sinking just above Chimney Peak" some eighteen miles from Yuma.