 Bamforth laid the keel while in San Francisco, bought copper rivets for the hull planking in Portland, Oregon, and began painting the boat after "Pennsylvanian" had traversed the Panama Canal.He expected to have the boat finished when "Pennsylvanian" arrived in Boston on 22 April.In October the same year, "Pennsylvanian" delivered of steel parts for the Hale Telescope then under construction at the Palomar Observatory outside San Diego.