The paddle steamer Aquila, built in 1854 for the North of Europe Steam Navigation Company, together with a sister ship the Cygnus, for a service between Harwich and Antwerp. Both ships were built by Henderson and Sons, Renfrew, but the engines of the Aquila were constructed by McNab.and Clark, of Greenock.
The service proved unsuccessful, and the ships were then chartered from Mr. Marples, shipbroker, in 1857, by the Weymouth and Channel Islands Steam Packet Company. The Aquila made her first voyage for the company on April 17, 1857, on the Guernsey and Jersey service. The Weymouth company found both ships were satisfactory and purchased them in November of the same year.
The Aquila was an iron steamer, clipper-bowed, with a carved figurehead of an eagle. There seems to be some disparity about the dimensions of the ships in various books, but Lloyd's Register gives the following :Iron paddle steamer; 304 gross; 244 under deck; 94 net tonnage; length 180.4; breadth 21.0; depth 10.9 ft. (These details are given for the ship in the 1897-98 Register when she had been renamed Ruby). In 1896, the Aquila was sold to James Jones and Company, of Swansea, who gave her the name Alexandra, replacing a former ship of the name. In the following year she was sold to the Hastings, St. Leonards-onSea and Eastbourne Steamship Company, and was renamed Ruby.
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