Sleek and painted white, with two funnels mounted close together amidships and with a high bridge over her paddle wheels, she plied the Hayle/St Ives to Bristol route in the days when the Great Western Railway had not penetrated as far as West Cornwall.

Her Harveys-built twin oscillating side-wheel engines with four boilers and 9 ft (2.7 m) stroke produced 230 hp (170 kW) and was capable of propelling the vessel at over 18 kn (21 mph; 33 km/h).

No, the most fastidious and aristocratic of steamboat travellers could certainly fine no fault here - all was perfection.She ran between Bristol and Hayle from 1858 to 1861, calling additionally at Ilfracombe.

She successfully avoided and outran Union forces on 22 occasions bringing vital supplies to the confederate army at Wilmington.

The abandoned mail proved to be a vital aid to the Union, gaining an insight into the Confederacy plans and in particularly the role that British seamen were taking in blockade running.

Cornubia was purchased from the Boston Prize court and then commissioned in the Union Navy on 17 March 1864 and assigned to the role of blockading the waters around Mobile and Pensacola, before later being reassigned to the coast of Texas.