Chartered in 1872 by Donald Currie for his embryonic Cape Mail service.

In 1879 she was lost while on a voyage from London to India

Penguin was chartered by Donald Currie to operate under his house flag while his own ships were being completed. The vessel’s owners were Seater, White & Co of Leith.

At the time, Currie was building his Cape service, the formal Castle Packet Company dates from 1876 and the Castle Mail Packet Company from 1881.

The record passage was in 1872. Penguin reached Table Bay on 2 May after a passage from Dartmouth of 24 days and 18 hours, according to the South African writer Lawrence G Green. Another history describes it as “just under 25 days”. Earlier Cape competitors had made the passage in 27 to 27.5 days, so Penguin cut more than two days from the previous best.

The record did not last long, in May 1873, Currie’s Windsor Castle made the passage in 23 days and 15 minutes. Green reports that Cape Town merchants celebrated the later record with a banquet for Windsor Castle’s captain (Capt J Howson) and officers.

Currie’s achievement was to charter a Leith-owned steamer and use her to establish a new Dartmouth - Cape Town passage record for his emerging Cape service. The record was an important early sign of the speed competition between Currie’s operation and the Union Line.

This picture is an artistic impression of how Penguin would probably have appeared.

This is based on ships of similar age and tonnage and built by the same yard