Uss Cornubia (1858)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! 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. She was given the name Cornubia from the Latinised name for Cornwall and was a fast iron paddle steamer, long and narrow at 210 ft (64 m) long and with a 24 ft 6 in (7.47 m) beam. 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). Her shallow, 9 ft (2.7 m) draft was initially designed to cope with the shallow harbours in Cornwall, but proved to be very useful in her later life.