Iron paddle steamer La Perlita built Bank Quay Foundry, Warrington 1853.
140grt, 106 x 17.5 x 8.6 ft, 2 masts, schooner rig, registered Liverpool.
Owned Pacific Steam Navigation Co.
Voyage Liverpool to South America - where she would provide a coastal service to Buenaventura in Colombia and Panama [Pacific Coast].
Liverpool, June 11, entered for loading: La Perlita(steamer), 170, Maugham, Pacific Steam Co., to Madeira, Panama and Valparaiso.
Holyhead, June 21, La Perlita, Medum[sic] sailed 19th for Callao.
La Perlita, Captain Robert Maughan, left Falmouth 3 July 1853 for Panama,
La Perlita left Rio Janeiro on August 18 for Valparaiso and Panama, and was last seen near the Straits of Magellan on 2 September 1853.
Vessel posted missing - and no sign of wreckage when searched for by company's steamer New Granada. [report in Toronto Globe 22-5-1854].
VALPARAISO, JAN. 31.The Nueva Granada (s.), has returned from an unsuccessful cruise in Smith's Channel [sic, Smyth], South Chili, in search of the British steamer Perlita, from Liverpool, which sailed from Rio Janeiro for this port 14th August. The Perlita was spoken by a steamer in the above neighbourhood in September last, and has not since been heard of. [from Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser - Tuesday 28 March 1854]

A small iron paddle steamer on her maiden voyage was going to have a tough time crossing the Atlantic and rounding S America to the Pacific. So it proved.
  The same year Bank Quay launched a much bigger iron vessel: Tayleur, launched in October 1853, with maiden voyage in January 1854 with, again, fatal consequences.

The company bought and sent out another steamer PS Osprey in early 1854, which also was lost on her delivery voyage.

The company ordered a replacement, PS Panama, built by John Reid, Port Glasgow 1856, which also was lost on her maiden voyage - near Point Tamar, in the Magellan Straits.