

The funnel was noted as shiny aluminium. A Boatnerd account dates adoption of silver with a black top to about 1905, using a photograph of the whaleback James B. Nielson, tentatively dated between 1905 and 1913. The vessel left the fleet in 1927 as J.T. Reid and was scrapped in 1936.
A black-and-white photograph of Governor Miller confirms the funnel. The early house flag is an elongated swallowtailed pennant, described as bearing fourteen white stars along the top and bottom edges. A platter dated 1912–24 supports it, though its taper is less pronounced or absent. A photograph captioned Pittsburgh Fleet Flag, 1960 shows another star beside P, apparently inverted upper-border stars and a trapezoidal rather than triangular field for the letter. A flapping flag on Cason J. Callaway has a bordered end, but its taper and star count remain unclear: eight seem visible below, while seven above leave gaps for more.