She sailed in the San Francisco, China, and Far East trades, and was known for her fine finish work and for her crew's escape from pirates.

Her ends are clipperly in their form, and her water-lines slightly concave; and, although she has only 8 inches dead rise at half floor, yet, as her stem is almost upright, her floor long, and her keel deep, she is expected to hold as good a wind as most of the sharp-bottomed clippers of the same register.The hull was black, the inside dark buff with blue waterways.

The "Boston Daily Atlas" praised Antelope’s ornamental work as "infinitely superior to most of the gaudy stuff now in vogue.

On August 6, she struck on Discovery Shoal, Paracels Reef, which was not visible due to a high, ending her sailing career after six years and nine months.

In the midst of the confusion, two of the Antelope sailors took advantage of the distraction and boarded the fishing junk, dispatching its crew.