The SS Cornubia was built in Hayle, Cornwall, by Harvey & Co. in 1858 as a packet ship and ferry for the Hayle Steam Packet Company. 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.