The Queensland Government ordered Lucinda from the Scottish shipyard of William Denny & Brothers at Dumbarton in January 1884 to replace an earlier steam yacht Kate from 1864. She was designed as a paddle yacht and lighthouse tender with a steel hull of 180 feet length overall, 25 feet beam and 9½ feet depth; the steamer measured 301 gross registered tons and had a service draught of 6 ft 3in. Her two side paddles were powered by an oscillating two-cylinder compound engine of 114 nhp, made by Denny, and she was equipped with electric light. She had a female figurehead and her accommodation was well fitted out. The press reported that "Although technically designated as only as lighthouse tender, the Lucinda is in reality one of the most magnificent upholstered and effectively equipped steamers afloat." The forward saloon was fitted with sofas and could be converted to sleep 20 passengers, while the aft saloon was designed for social events. The specification notes that "an oval shaped deck opening in centre, with stained glass skylight, afforded light and ventilation" and that the "aft part of the deckhouse was fitted up as a ladies' ante-room, with side panels of japanese tapestry." There was also a smoking room in the forward deckhouse.
Lucinda was named in honour of Lady Jeannie Lucinda Musgrave, second wife of Governor Sir Anthony Musgrave. She was steamed out to Australia via Gibraltar, the Suez Canal, Aden and Batavia, departing the Clyde on 17 January 1885 and arriving at Brisbane on 7 May. As well as servicing Queensland lighthouses, the steamer was used for ministerial visits along the coast, Cabinet meetings on the Brisbane River and Moreton Bay, picnic outings for various associations and annual excursions for school children in the state. Lucinda was also flagship of the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, and she was referred to as Queensland Government Steam Yacht Lucinda. Lucinda was used at one time as a mail vessel for delivering mail along the Queensland coast. At that time she was largely captained by Captain James Hodda South who notably surveyed/sounded and used South Passage in Moreton Bay to cut hours off the mail route. It was thought by some that this is how South Passage came to be named; however, the name had been given to this Southern Passage about 50 years earlier. Another Captain was Dennis O'Hara Burke 'Dinney' of Mount Cotton who married Mary Ann Hughes in Brisbane in 1903. The helm of "his" ship was preserved for many decades at Newstead House before being transferred to the Queensland Maritime Museum. ran the Loganholme Ferries until the 'New Logan River Bridge' was completed. In March 1891, the first National Australian Convention was convened in Sydney, New South Wales to consider a draft constitution for the Commonwealth of Australia. The Queensland Premier, Sir Samuel Griffith, had taken Lucinda to Sydney and, on being elected chairman of the Constitutional Committee, made the yacht available. Between 27 and 29 March, Griffith, the South Australian Charles Kingston and Sir Edmund Barton from New South Wales finalised the draft constitution while cruising on the Hawkesbury River. Amongst ceremonial occasions was her involvement in the formal arrival in Brisbane of the Duke and Duchess of York in May 1901. In 1921, in view of her age and cost of upkeep, Lucinda was laid up in Brisbane.
Retirement and fate
In 1923 Lucinda was sold for £400 to local engineering company Evans, Anderson, Phelan & Co who partially dismantled her, much of her outfit being auctioned. Later, in 1926/1927, she became coal lighter for the Riverside Coal Transport Company, who fitted conveyors and a bucket elevator for mechanised discharge, using her to carry coal from Ipswich to Brisbane. On 28 January 1937, the vessel was beached on the south east side of Bishop Island at the mouth of the Brisbane River to form a breakwater, after she had been cut down to a bare hull. The hulk has since been covered over by the expansion of the Port of Brisbane. The bar and some panelling from the steamer's saloon are retained in the Lucinda Room in Parliament House, Brisbane.
