According to Chinese historical archives, in the winter of 1854, some Ningbo merchants, who were engaged in trading to the north ports of China, raised 70,000 yuan and purchased a steamship named Paoushun. It was the first steamship introduced to modern China. But the Chinese historical archives tell us nothing about why this steamship got the name Paoushun, and when, where, and by whom she was built. As these fundamental questions still remain unsolved today, this article aims to give answers to these questions. In the end of 2009, some payrolls and invoices of Paoushun from 1855 to 1856 were found in Ningbo, most of which were written in English. On these payrolls and invoices the name of the steamship was written as Paoushun Steamer or Paou Shun in English, and the name of her master was Toms. On July 21, 1855, The North-China Herald, an English newspaper published in Shanghai reported a news about a screw-steamer ″Paoushun″: this vessel was purchased by the merchants trading to the north China at a cost of ￥ 70,000, and ″she is thronged from morning to night with respectable visitors, to whom Captain Toms and his officers show every attention.″ And there were also other reports by The North-China Herald about Paoushun attacking pirates on the sea, which are consistent with the accounts in Chinese historical archives too. It is clear that the steamship Paoushun recorded in Chinese historical documents is the same steamship as reported in The North-China Herald. According to the records of Lloyd’s Register of British and Foreign Shipping and other English literature, Paoushun was a screw steamship built by John Gray in 1851 in New Haven, USA. She took the Chinese name of the Dent and Co.，″Paoushun,″ which means that wealth comes smoothly. So it is clear that the steamer’s name ″Paoushun″ was given by Dent and Co. when she was built, not by the Ningbo merchants who purchased her. Paoushun set off on her maiden voyage from New Haven to England, arrived at Hong Kong from England in 1852, and then frequently carried opium from India for Dent and Co. to Hong Kong in the following years. In the winter of 1854, Dent and Co. decided to sell Paoushun to Ningbo merchants. When she entered the harbor of Ningbo in July 1855, a new chapter in the history of Chinese navigation was opened.