She spent most of her career trading with the Baltic, though she made some voyages elsewhere, and in particular, between 1788 and 1799 she made a voyage to the Falkland Islands as a whaler.

[1] Whaling voyage (1787–1789): Captain Thomas Middleton sailed from London on 5 December 1787, bound for the Falkland Islands.

[3] In April 1789 Sappho and Elizabeth and Mary, James Hopper, master, were in Port Desire when a Spanish frigate arrived and confiscated thousands of seal skins they had gathered.

[3] In April 1789 she put into Port Desire for water and repairs.

[2] Sappho returned to London on 16 July 1789 with one tun of sperm oil, eight tuns of whale oil, four cwt whale bone, and 19,000 seal skins.