Royal Admiral was a 414-ton timber three-masted barque,[2] built at King's Lynn, England in 1828[3] and used as a merchant ship.

On her first convict voyage, under the command of David Fotheringham and surgeon S. Rutherford, she departed Portsmouth on 5 July 1830 and arrived in Sydney on 8 November 1830.

[7] For her second convict voyage, under the command of David Fotheringham and surgeon Andrew Henderson, Royal Admiral departed Dublin, Ireland on 4 or 5 June 1833, and arrived in Sydney on 26 October.

[9] On her third convict voyage, under the command of David Fotheringham and surgeon J. Osborne, Royal Admiral departed Dublin on 27 September 1834 and arrived in Sydney on 22 January 1835.

[9] Royal Admiral also sailed from Falmouth, Cornwall on 26 September 1837 with 112 pioneering settlers bound for Port Adelaide, South Australia, arriving 18 January 1838.