Characterized by her biographer Jeff Toghill as a typical "workhorse barque," she was intended to be operated as economically as possible while carrying general cargo worldwide - coal, salt, grain and cotton goods.

[2] Like many other sailing ships of her modest size, she fell victim to the advance of steamships in the first decade of the twentieth century and in 1911 she was converted to a storage hulk in Port Moresby.

However, with the world-wide shortage of shipping caused by the First World War, she was re-rigged and refitted for trade in the Pacific in 1918.

[3] In 1925 she was laid up again, then used as a hulk, until eventually being abandoned at Recherche Bay in Tasmania.To avoid her drifting and becoming a navigational hazard, a large hole was blown in her stern.

[5][6] Restoration of James Craig began in 1972, when volunteers from the Lady Hopetoun and Port Jackson Marine Steam Museum (now the Sydney Heritage Fleet) refloated her and towed her to Hobart for initial repairs.

James Craig is currently berthed at Wharf 7 of Darling Harbour, near the Australian National Maritime Museum.

The cost of maintaining her is over $1 million a year and the ship relies on generating income from visitors alongside, charters, events, and regular daysails with up to 80 passengers.