The ship was travelling from Gravesend, England to Melbourne, Australia, when she began taking in water on 10 January, with 239 persons aboard.

On 4 February 1865, she left Melbourne for the return trip to London with 260 passengers and 2,799.3 kg of gold, and arrived back in Gravesend on 26 April 1865.

She departed on 9 September 1865 for the return trip with 160 passengers and 2,657.5 kg of gold, arriving back in London in November of that year.

The final voyage of the London began on 13 December 1865[citation needed], when the ship left Gravesend in Kent bound for Melbourne, under a Captain Martin, an experienced Australian navigator.

A story later highly publicised after the loss states that when the ship was en route down the Thames, a seaman seeing her pass Purfleet said: "It'll be her last voyage…she is too low down in the water, she'll never rise to a stiff sea.

As she sank, all those on deck were driven forward by the overpowering rush of air from below, her bows rose high till her keel was visible and then she was "swallowed up, for ever, in a whirlpool of confounding waters".

Three main factors were attributed to the sinking of London by the subsequent inquiry by the Board of Trade: firstly, the decision by Captain Martin to return to Plymouth, as it is believed the ship had passed the worst of the weather conditions and by turning back the London re-entered the storm; secondly, the ship was overloaded with 345 tons of railway iron; and finally, the 50 tons of coal which was stored above deck, which after the decks were washed by waves blocked the scupper holes, which prevented drainage of the seawater.

[citation needed] According to a publication out of Hamilton, Victoria, Australia, messages in bottles that originated with people who were lost in this sinking were found.

From the Hamilton Spectator (Page 3, 12 May 1866): "The Argus contains an account of certain bottles found on the French coast of the terrible Bay of Biscay."

A retelling of this account reveals that the bottles contained "farewell messages from passengers by the London to friends and relatives in England."

This was the property which "Aunt Powell" had left or given to her niece my Great-Aunt Fanny, who at the age of ninety-one had given them to my mother, the wife of her nearest heir.