On 23 November 1885, near Matane, she collided with the SS Bentholme which sank as a result.

On 30 June 1886, she ran aground on the Antrim coast, but was refloated, sold, and renamed Lismore.

This iron screw-steamer was the first of the Beaver Line steamships and was set to sail between Liverpool, Quebec, and Montreal when navigation of the Saint Lawrence River was ice-free.

Her design was intended to withstand the worst weather of the Atlantic, and her hull had been specially strengthened for any contact with ice.

On her sea trial from Greenock, she ran between the Cloch and Cumbrae lighthouses, a distance of 13.666 nautical miles (25.309 km; 15.727 mi), in under seventy-one minutes.