File:Bird's-eye view of the steamer NANN SMITH in Coos Bay, ca 1913 (TRANSPORT 623).jpg

C.A. Smith, who had completed a large sawmill at Marshfield, engaged Edward S. Hough of San Francisco to design a specialized steel lumber-carrying steamer for operation between Coos Bay, Washington, and California. This vessel, the NANN SMITH of 2,009 tons, with a carrying capacity of 2,250,000 board feet, was completed in 1907 by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. of Virginia and placed in operation in 1908 by the Inter-Ocean Transportation Co., a Smith subsidiary. This was a particularly interesting development from the historical standpoint, for it marked the beginning of packaged lumber shipments. Water shipment of packaged lumber is generally considered to be a post-World War II development and few are aware that it was pioneered well over half a century before. (pg. 152) Notes from Gordon Newell, ed., The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (Seattle: Superior Publishing Co, 1966).

• Subjects (LCSH): Nann Smith (Steamship); Steamships--Oregon--Coos Bay; Harbors--Oregon--Coos Bay