The steamer Egyptian outward-bound from Liverpool passing the Skerries

The iron screw steamer Egyptian was built for Liverpool's famous Bibby Line by Harland & Wolff at Belfast in 1861. Registered at 2,068 tons gross (1,356 net), she measured 335 feet in length with a 34 foot beam and carried an auxiliary schooner rig on three masts. Driven by a single screw powered by a 450hp. engine by J. Jack Rollo of Liverpool, she could steam at 10 knots and was intended for the company's original Mediterranean routes. Designed, with her two sisters, as the first of Harland & Wolff's so-called 'long ships', all three were initially thought to be unsafe and were nicknamed 'Bibby's coffins'. Confounding their critics however, the trio proved highly economical and were all good seaboats.

Entering service in the summer of 1861, Egyptian proved a reliable addition to the Bibby fleet and was still in prime condition when the company was acquired by Leyland in 1873. Re-engined by Forrester's of Liverpool and reduced to two masts in 1879, she was re-boilered in 1889 and only broken up in 1903 as a result of the Leyland fleet being sold to new owners who found Egyptian obsolete and surplus to requirements.