[2] Bombay first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1831 with J.Dare, master, Prinsep & Co., owner, and trade Cowes–London.

She was coming from Calcutta with general cargo, 25 passengers, and ten convicts, and was sailing on to Sydney.

While she was at Swan River gales wrecked many vessels, including James and the Bombay-registered ketch Emelia and Ellen.

[6][a] She arrived at Sydney on 26 July with passengers, Mr. Goldsmith, late master of James, and the ten prisoners.

[8] On 17 September 1837 she was in Sydney under Captain Lawson carrying sperm whale oil from the South Seas.

[11] After the New Zealand Company chartered Bombay she sailed under Captain James Moore from Deptford on 30 July 1842 and Gravesend on 1 August for Wellington and Nelson.

He confirmed an observation by Lawson some years earlier that there were commercially viable guano deposits there.