Himalaya was ordered by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) and laid down at the yard of C. J. Mare & Co., Leamouth, London in November 1851 as an iron paddle steamer, half as large again as any of P&O's previous vessels.

[4] She was fitted with a two-cylinder simple expansion horizontal trunk engine made by John Penn and Sons at Greenwich of 700 nhp or 2,050 ihp, with a single two-bladed propeller of 18 feet diameter driving her at a speed of 13 knots.

[11] P&O had concluded that Himalaya was a larger vessel than the passenger traffic demanded and, with coal becoming more expensive with the advent of war in the Crimea, would not be economic.

[12][2] The purchase was initially viewed with suspicion by some naval experts; in the light of high losses of iron-hulled transports taken up from trade, General Howard Douglas concluded that ships such as Himalaya would prove unsatisfactory, particularly due to their vulnerability to gunfire.

[12] During this time she supported operations during the Second Opium War, and carried troops to India, South Africa, the Gold Coast, and North America.

[20] On 30 November 1880, she was briefly aground at Queenstown, County Cork, floating off in half an hour and resuming her departure undamaged.

[24] C60 was sold out of the navy on 28 September 1920 to a private owner, E. W. Payne, and towed to Portland Harbour as Himalaya, to continue as a coal hulk.