She was built in 1853 for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company as a side-wheel paddle steamer, and at the time of her launch was the world's largest passenger ship.

[1] She was converted to a single screw ship with a compound steam engine in 1872, and placed on the Aberdeen Line that chartered her to run to Victoria and New Zealand.

However, two months after Demerara's accident RMS Amazon, another member of the new quintet, caught fire and sank in the Bay of Biscay on her maiden voyage.

RMSP duly ordered an iron-hulled ship from Caird & Company to use Demerara's engines and fill one of the gaps in the new fleet.

In April 1856 she and two other RMSP ships, La Plata and Tay, attended the Spithead Review to celebrate the end of the Crimean War.

[1] James Watt and Company of London re-engined her as a single-screw vessel with a two-cylinder compound engine[1] fed by three double-ended boilers.