She was immortalized by one of her sailors Richard Henry Dana Jr., who wrote the classic account Two Years Before the Mast about a 1834–1835 voyage between Massachusetts and California to trade for hides.

Pilgrim was a brig-rigged sailing vessel built in 1825 by Sprague & James at Medford, Massachusetts for Joshua Blake, Francis Stanton and George Hallett, and later sold to Bryant & Sturgis of Boston.

[1] Richard Henry Dana Jr., a Harvard College undergraduate suffering from the effects of measles, joined the crew in 1834 as an ordinary sailor for a voyage from Boston, Massachusetts via Cape Horn to California to trade for hides from the ranches around the Franciscan missions.

Besides the captain, there were four specialist crewmembers who were not part of any watch: the steward, cook, carpenter and sailmaker.

[3] The ship began to heel starboard in its dock on March 29, and the decision was made to demolish it.