Ben-my-Chree was built by the Barrow Shipbuilding Company and launched at Barrow-in-Furness on 6 May 1875.

With a top speed of 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) at 2,300 shaft horsepower (1,700 kW), and fitted with two oscillating two-cylinder engines with a 65-inch (170 cm) diameter and 90-inch (230 cm) stroke.

It was subsequently found that she operated two knots below her recorded top speed, despite modifications to her boilers.

Reboilered in 1884, she was altered to carry four funnels, in pairs fore and aft of the paddle-boxes.

After an uneventful 31-year career, Ben-my-Chree was sold for scrap and broken up at Morecambe, in 1906.