The Hudson's Bay Company chartered her from 1848 to 1850 to carry labourers for the settlement on Vancouver Island.

[3] 1st whaling voyage (1830–1833): Captain John Clark sailed from London on 18 November 1830, bound for the Seychelles.

[2] This voyage resulted in a court case involving oil-merchants refusing to pay for whale oil they had contracted for.

On 4 November 1831, Messrs. Field & Thompson engaged with Wigram and Green to purchase half of Harpooner's oil at £68 per ton on her return.

When Harpooner arrived back at London she had 254 tons 96 gallons of whale oil on board.

[4] 2nd whaling voyage (1833–1836): Captain John Clark sailed from London on 24 September 1833, bound for the Indian Ocean and Timor.

While she was undergoing repairs Debney transshipped on a merchant vessel going to London the 1200 barrels of oil Harpooner had gathered.

In Hobart Debney sought a cargo of freight to carry back to London with the oil.

[2] In Adelaide, Debney took on more freight, but Harpooner not sail until 18 March 1847, under the command of a new master named Papps.

A survey resulted in Harpooner transshipping part of her cargo to enable the vessel to ride higher in the water.

Wigrams sought to assign the cost of repairing her for the sake of completing the voyage to the owners of the cargo under a claim of general average.

[5] In December 1848 the Hudson's Bay Company chartered Harpooner to carry labourers for the settlement on Vancouver Island.

She arrived on 31 May 1849 in Victoria, British Columbia with the labourers, miners, carpenters, bakers, and others, including eight settlers that Captain John Marshall Grant had recruited.