In 1787, she became the first Native Hawaiian to sail abroad with a Western ship when she was hired as the servant or maid of Frances Hornsby Trevor Barkley, the wife of Captain Charles William Barkley, on the British ship Imperial Eagle.
Barkley recorded her name as Wynee which was possibly an attempted spelling of wahine, the Hawaiian word for woman.
[1][2] The Barkleys intended to take her back to Europe but Wynee requested to return home and so she was left in the Portuguese colony of Macao.
[3] At Canton, she arranged to return to Hawaii aboard Captain John Meares's ship Felice Adventurero with fellow Hawaiian "Tianna" (Kaʻiana – also spelled Tyaana & Tyanna), a member of the aliʻi (high chief) class from the island of Kauai.
[3][5][6] Shortly after describing her last moments, Captain Meares wrote: Thus died Winee, a native of Owhyhee, one of the Sandwich Islands, who possessed virtues that are seldom to be found in the class of her countrywomen to which she belonged, and a portion of understanding that was not be expected in a rude and uncultivated mind.