Jane first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in 1818 with Petterson, master, Stranger, owner, and trade Yarmouth–Straits [of Gibraltar].

Strachan and James Mitchell, a Scottish insurance broker living in London, owned Jane.

In 1820, news of the discovery of the South Shetland Islands had just broken, and Weddell suggested that fortunes might be made in the new sealing grounds.

2nd whaling voyage (1820–1821): Captain James Weddell sailed Jane, of or from Greenock, for the South Shetland Islands on 28 July 1820.

3rd whaling voyage (1821–1822): Captain Weddell, by now a part-owner in Jane, sailed on 13 July 1821 for the South Shetland Islands.

[2] Jane, Waddell, master, and her tender, Beaufoy, were reported to have been at New South Shetland on 3 February with 800 seal skins and 60 tons of oil.

[4] However, there were some 45 sealers operating in the area, and seal were already becoming rare (a mere two years after the discovery of the islands), and so he scouted for new hunting grounds.

Michael McCleod, captain of Beaufoy, sighted the South Orkney Islands on 22 November 1821, an independent discovery from that of Powell and Palmer just a few days earlier.