On board were 80 male migrants, including George Hunter, Samuel Duncan Parnell, Hart Udy and family (whose son also named Hart Udy was a Mayor of Greytown and a rugby player for New Zealand), William Lyon, and 87 female migrants.

On 7 May 1843, Duke, as she was affectionately known to crew and passengers, sailed under Captain Collard from England with Francis Russell Nixon, the first Anglican Bishop of Tasmania, his wife and family, and Archdeacon Fitzherbert Marriott, together with six other cabin passenger including John Helder Wedge and the future squatter Henry Godfrey.

Sailing via Trindade, Ascension Island, and Cape Colony, Duke reached Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land, on 21 July 1843.

On 12 November Duke of Roxburgh sailed from Sydney with 162 passengers for San Francisco, drawn by the news of the discovery of gold in California.

Under the command of Capt E. Kirsopp, she left Amoy on 16 August 1851 and arrived at Moreton Bay on 8 November 1851, having touched at Ascension Island.