The iron side-wheel paddle steamer Estrella was launched by Samuda Brothers at Blackwall, London on the River Thames on 20 August 1853 for the newly-established Magdalena Steam Navigation Company.

Estrella had capacity for 60–90 passengers[1][2][3] The ship was powered by a two-cylinder oscillating steam engine with an output of 120 nominal horse-power manufactured by Humphrys, Tennant and Dykes at their new engineworks at Deptford.

[5][6] On 1 August 1855 she sank in the river Magdalena near Conejo en route to Honda after being holed by a rock; her passengers and crew were saved, and the ship was reported at Lloyd's of London as lost,[7] but in the event refloated and repaired.

In May 1856, the Magdalena Steam Navigation Company concluded that the venture was not sufficiently profitable and should be wound up, for which they intended their three vessels, Estrella, Anita and Isabel, which had been operating under the British flag, should be returned to England for sale.

It was found that Estrella's deck was hogged, probably as a result the earlier sinking and numerous groundings in the Magdalena, and that she was not seaworthy; in addition, the ship's boats were condemned as "entirely worthless".

[12][13][a] She was then documented at New York as an American ship and chartered by McLean & Lintz to the US Army Quartermaster Department as United States Transport Estrella from 7 July 1862 at US$400 per day.

Widows, sisters, and daughters completed physical and psychological family sojourns, capitalized on gilded pensions, and corresponded on the cultural memory of corpses, death, and life aboard Estrella.

[18][19][20] In March 1868 Estrella was described as an "American" steamer when reported condemned at Kingston, Jamaica,[21] but in the same year was owned by Lamb & Co of Saint Thomas, then part of the Danish West Indies, when seeking parity of treatment in Venezuelan ports with British ships.

[22] On 21 December 1868, the "intercolonial packet sateamer" Estrella was reported wrecked in the Los Roques archipelago on a voyage from Saint Thomas to La Guaira, Puerto Cabello and Curacao, with passengers, mail and general cargo.

[24] Soon afterwards, on 27 November, on voyage from Cap-Haïtien to Port au Prince, Twinkling Star developed an underwater crack below the waterline and began to take water; amid general panic, five passengers, including the American Consul in Jamaica, took to a boat and reached Môle-Saint-Nicolas, Haiti.

[26][27][28] By 24 December, she had been surveyed, condemned and ordered to be sold [29] She remained on moorings at Savanna-la-Mar until 21 May 1873, when she sank in 10 ft water [30] This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.