[8] Charles Mark Palmer was responsible for the design of the John Bowes which was just the second vessel of over a thousand ships eventually built by the Jarrow shipyard which he had founded with his brother George.

The vessel's novel features included an iron hull, the use of water ballast, and steam propulsion with a screw propeller.

The steamer was launched on 30 June 1852 and named for John Bowes, a mine owner, business partner of Charles Palmer and the then High Sheriff of Durham.

[2][10] During a voyage from Rosedale, Yorkshire to the River Tyne on 16 July 1860, she was run aground on the Insand, off the coast of County Durham on the North Sea.

In 1908, she was sold on to Spain, where she traded for a further twenty five years as the Carolina, Valentin Fierro and finally as the Villa Selgas.