Built in Stockton-on-Tees by Richardson, Duck and Company and launched on 28 February 1856 as the Tasmanian Maid, yard number 9, for F A Ducroz (Dalgety & Co) of London for service in New Zealand.
[3] Once in New Zealand she sailed regularly between Nelson, Motueka, Collingwood, and Wairau carrying passengers and cargo.
[3] In 1865 she surveyed Cook Strait for an undersea telegraph cable and assisted in transporting troops to Wanganui under Captain Marks.
[3] That same year charges of mutiny were laid against Captain Hannibal Marks for disobeying the orders of Francis Cadell.
[9][10] Members of the New Plymouth Underwater Club rediscovered the wreck at the southern end of Kawaroa Reef in 1976.