The Pelican was built for City of Cork Steam Packet Co and launched in 1859, being sold to David MacBrayne 38 years later. After many years of uneventful service, she ended her sailing days as a coal storage hulk in Tobermory Bay, where she was lying at her ususal mooring on 5th December 1895. In the early hours of 6th December, a gale broke. The powerful storm caused the old ship's anchor chain to part, and the Pelican drfited helplessly across Tobermory Bay and went aground on the west shore of Calve Island. As the tide went out, she took on a list to starboard, eventually slipping off the rocks and sinking in deep water close to the shore.