This 763 ton ship was built at Sunderland in 1849. It was employed as a convict transport for Western Australia and left Plymouth, England on September 23, 1857 bound for the Swan River Colony, stopping at Bahia, Brazil on the way. She carried the nineteenth of 37 shipments of male convicts destined for Western Australia. The voyage took 100 days and the Nile arrived in Fremantle on January 1, 1858 with 40 passengers and 268 convicts [Erickson]. W. Johnson was the captain of the vessel.

The two deaths recorded on the convict shipping and description lists were for Hodgson Dawson (4662) and John Hunter (4708) and other sources say they both died on the voyage out. There were 270 convict numbers assigned for the voyage ranging from (4508 to 4777) and the [Bateson] account of the voyage differs from both [Erickson] and the convict lists above by saying that 270 convicts embarked and 270 arrived.

There were no pensioner guards on the voyage and the 40 passengers mentioned above have not been accounted for but were possibly cabin passengers or regular soldiers.

In contrast to the above, on January 8, 1858, the 'Perth Gazette' accounted for 60 passengers made up of 27 sappers, 13 women and 20 children. To add to the confusion, correspondence from the Colonial Office listed 38 passengers made up of 10 warders, 8 wives, 9 boys and 11 girls.