Lalla Rookh was a square-rigged, iron-hulled tea clipper of 869 tons, built in 1856 in Liverpool, Lancashire, owned by William Prowse & Co. and said to travel fast.

[2] On 28 October 1859, the Danish schooner Ida collided with a ship named Lallah Rookh and sank at Liverpool, but was able to be refloated, and all crew were saved.

[10] In December 1871 she was being advertised to carry passengers, as a packet ship, to Melbourne, Adelaide, Geelong, Sydney, Hobart and Launceston under Captain Fullerton.

Unsuccessful attempts were made to launch the lifeboats, but a rocket was fired by coastguards on shore carrying a hawser, which was used to save all of the crew within 30 minutes.

An American stowaway, who had been discovered three days after leaving Shanghai and had been very ill during the voyage, apparently died shortly before the ship struck the shore.

[13][1] A Board of Trade inquiry was held into the sinking of the vessel, in which it was stated that the wreck took place during a dense fog, and, according to the second mate, all that was possible to save the ship was done, although the two lead lines on deck were not used.