Belfast was launched in August 1829 at the Port Glasgow shipyard of John Wood & Co.[1][2] With a wooden hull, her side-paddles were powered by a two-cylinder beam engine of 150 hp (110 kW) nominal, made by David Napier at Camlachie, Glasgow.

[3][4] She was owned by David Napier, her engine builder, and arrived at Belfast on her first voyage on 2 September 1829.

Adrift, she would have probably been totally wrecked but for "the providential circumstance of a heavy sea carrying the vessel safely over the bar" into the comparative shelter of Youghal harbour.

[9] She left Youghal on 22 February after hull and engine repairs, and resumed service, then in October was sent to Woolwich Dockyard for a thorough overhaul.

[12] Prospero was based at Pembroke for nearly 30 years, initially as a steam packet and, from 1853, as dockyard tender, tug and occasional coastal transport.