Chartered by the New Zealand Company for this voyage the ship was carrying Scottish settlers, under the charge of the Rev.
[1] The ship was under command of Captain Andrew Jamieson Elles with Surgeon-Supt Dr Robert Ramsay responsible for the health of the crew and passengers.
On 27 November the captain returned and ordered the anchor up at 2 p.m. Once underway the wind soon died away, and at midnight the ship was only three miles below the Clock Lighthouse.
On 28 November the ship anchored in Lamlash Bay, Isle of Arran in the Firth of Clyde.
Thomas Burns took the opportunity to arrange for timber to be purchased and brought on board so that it could be used to enclose the open galley used to prepare the food for the steerage passengers.
[2] While a violent storm prevented departure the ship lay in anchor in Lamlash Bay for 10 days before they managed to sail until worsening conditions again forced the ship to take shelter, this time in Milford Haven in Wales where they dropped anchor at 7 a.m. on 12 December.
[2] For eight days the ship lay at anchor during which time the passengers were able to make visits ashore.
The wedding certificate, signed by Thomas Burns, is preserved in the historic Bible of the Philip Laing, which is one of the most sacred relics in the Otago Early Settlers' Library.
[3] When leaving Lyttelton, bound for Singapore, she was struck by a squall and nearly capsized, but she righted herself, but not before it had been mistakenly reported that she had sunk with the loss of all of her crew.
Laing Street in Port Chalmers is named after the ship,[4] as is Philip Laing House, in the Exchange area of downtown Dunedin (which sits diagonally opposite John Wickliffe House, named for Dunedin's other first ship).