The steel screw-steamer Cearense, 2,704, was laid down and launched in 1891 as the West Indian. Built at Barrow by the Navel Construction & Armament Company, she was ordered for the West India & Pacific Steamship Co. and first registered at Liverpool. Engined by her builders, she measured 318 feet in length with a 40½ foot beam, and was classed 100Al by Lloyd's surveyors when she entered service. Within a few years, she was sold by her original owners and acquired by the Booth Steamship Co., also of Liverpool, who in turn sold by her to J. F. O'Meara. On 13 September 1913 she was wrecked on Marsh Point, in the estuary of the Nelson River in Hudson Bay, whilst carrying a cargo of coal and timber from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Port Nelson.