The City of Paris was a three master, schooner rigged passenger steamer built in 1866 by Tod & McGregor in Glasgow. She was 346' long and registered at 2,556 gross tons. Built for the Inman Line, she sailed between Liverpool and New York for her entire career. In 1870 she was lengthened to 397' and re-registered at 3,500 tons. In 1883 she made her last trans-Atlantic crossing and was sold to French owners the following year and renamed Tonquin.

Her new owners were not as successful with her as the Inman Line was, on March 4, 1885 she was sunk in a collision with SS Maurice et Rèunion off Malaga, Spain. Twenty-four crewmen were lost in the sinking, thirty-eight survived.