Built for South American service, Tejuca spent most of her brief career in the coffee trade between Brazil and the United States, making four round trips between the two countries, including a passage between Bahia and New Orleans in early 1855 that at the time was reportedly one of the fastest on record.

[3][4] Launched 24 May 1854, Tejuca was built "for the South American trade",[5][b] and was named after the district of Tijuca[c] in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, then known for its coffee plantations.

[12] Departing Rio 5 February, the vessel then completed "one of the quickest passages on record"[13] between that port and New Orleans, where she arrived 14 March with a cargo of 4,541 bags of coffee.

[19] On the latter voyage, the ship experienced heavy weather, losing her topgallant mast and having several yards sprung and sails split, while also being "twice blown off the coast.

[1][20] Excelsior's captain, Eben Mitchell of Kennebunk, Maine, had seen Tejuca's plight and determined to aid her crew, in spite of his own vessel having taken a severe battering from the hurricane.

[1] All of Tejuca's crew were saved in the operation but one, who lost his footing and was crushed between the two ships; though he too was hauled aboard Excelsior, he died a few hours later from internal injuries.

[23] The following May, a group of shipmasters from Mobile, Alabama, presented Captain Mitchell with a "handsome service of plate ... as a testimonial of their appreciation of his gallant conduct in rescuing the crew and officers of the clipper ship Tejuca".

[24] Tejuca was one of 79 American ships lost and over a thousand damaged in the first six months of 1856, described at the time as "a period probably without parallel in our commercial history",[24] with total losses estimated at $15,890,500 (equivalent to $538,864,511 in 2023).