The ship's hull was diagonally planked with Scotch larch on the inside and East India teak on the outside, and the two-cylinder auxiliary steam engine of 16 n.h.p.

She purchased Fox in April 1857, after finally accepting advice that the 159-ton auxiliary schooner Isabel that she had owned since 1852 was too small for the job, and the government had denied her requests to use HMS Resolute.

On 6 May 1859, Hobson discovered the only written messages from the missing expedition ever found, in cairns on King William Island.

Three of the ship's crew died during the expedition: the engineer from natural causes, his assistant by a shipboard accident, and the steward from scurvy.

By the late 1880s, Fox was owned by Akties Kryolith Mine-og Handels Selskabet of Copenhagen, and was refitted with a 17 nhp compound steam engine made by Burmeister & Wain.