ship Shalimar was built at St. John, New Brunswick in 1854, by James Nevins : length 208 ft. (overall 225 ft.) ; breadth 40 ft. ; depth 23 ft. ; carpenter's measurement 1,467 tons ; register 1,402 tons. She was sold to Liverpool in 1854 for the Australia line of packets, the "White Star Line" of John Pilkington and Henry Threlfall Wilson. She began her Australia service in 1855.

. . . She is a handsome looking vessel—always a recommendation—neatly rigged, her bow ornamented with a well executed female figure, and her stern enriched with a tasteful design in giltwork. Her arrangements on deck comprise a topgallant forecastle for the crew, a large, well-built house amidships, and a full poop aft with a commodious erection built on that, which includes the chief cabin entrance, and a very comfortable smoking room, with stained glass windows. She has plenty of deck-room for passengers to promenade, and her high bulwarks will shelter them in heavy weather. The appearance of the deck arrangements is very compact and tasteful for the houses are finished in an ornamental style, and painted blue and white. The chief cabin in an elegant apartment upholstered in dark polished woods, mahogany, rosewood and walnut, with a rich head-work of satinwood marking the panels. In the cornice-decorations the "white star" is conspicuous on a red ground. There are berths for a dozen passengers, with baths and every other sanitary comfort attached. Although the first impression which strikes us is its limited size, a more close examination shows that a much more than usual space is bestowed upon the state-rooms and berths.
The forward part of the poop is fitted to accomodate thirty second-cabin passengers, and twenty of the same class are located in the house amidships. In these apartments the improved plan is adopted of making the meal-rooms apart by themselves, and placing the state-rooms, with their sleeping berths, along corridors attached ; and the cabins are, by the aid of numerous windows and spacious skylights, cushioned seats, convenient tables and rich paperhangings of chaste and tasteful designs, rendered as light and airy, and agreeable as could be desired. In the deck-house are more bathrooms and the whole forward part of it is occupied with a large "kitchen," divided into two cooking galleys, one for the passengers, the other for the crew. It is fitted in berths of two, with a large family berth on each side of the centre division. In the aft and forward ends of the deck-house, and in front of the poop, are covered companion-ways, leading to the 'tween decks below, which have a height of eight feet in the clear. Here, as in every other part of the ship, the cabins are well finished, and unusually spacious, and light is secured by means of large ventilating shafts, skylights, deck lights, and other appliances. The midship portion is appropriated to first-class passengers in berths of two, arranged on each side of a passage way, and the fore and after ends to intermediate passengers. The general arrangement is on the ordinary plan, with the state room ranged along either side of the vessel ; but there is observable a useful novelty in the intermediate portion of the ship, which consists in several of the state-rooms being fitted with berths for eith or ten people, made on the telescope princople, so as to slide quite out of the way, and give great room in the apartments when not required for sleeping purposes. . . . The Shipping gazette and Sydney general trade list. Volume 12, Number 560 (29 January, 1855) Page 28

ship Shalimar, Captain G. Harley departed Liverpool August 22nd 1862 arrived Melbourne, Vic. November 15th 1862 (continued to Auckland, NZ)