In 1816, a yard at Saint John in the Canadian province of New Brunswick completed the construction of a brig, built of black birch and pitch pine, with a square stern and flush deck with no quarter windows, gallery or figurehead. The hull measured 75' 6" length,  21' 5" beam and 11' 5 depth of hold weighting 142 tons. 

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She was called the Amity, a word meaning 'Friendship', a rather fitting name seeing that her launch was after more than twenty years of wars and a year after the Napoleonic Wars (1799–1815) had ended, that ranged France against shifting alliances of European powers and an attempt to maintain French strength established by the French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802).

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Christopher Scott was the third and youngest son of William Scott, head of the old Clyde shipbuilding firm Scotts of Greenock, established in 1711.  Scott crossed the Atlantic in 1798, to establish a new yard at Saint John, he was a master mariner, a designer and builder of merchantmen and became a trader, commanding his own vessels. In 1816, Scott completed the build of the brig Amity with many of the tradesmen that served their apprenticeships with the master mariner. 

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The Amity was used for several voyages between America and Great Britain as a merchant vessel trading between the continents. In 1823, she was purchased by a wealthy farming family from Scotland the Ralston Family, who wanted to seek new opportunities in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). On the 15th November 1823, under the command of Captain McMeckan, Robert Ralston and his family set sail across the world with a crew of twenty one passengers, in addition to several cows and other livestock. Their route took them from Stranraer across the Atlantic Ocean to Rio de Janeiro, before arriving in Van Diemen's Land, exactly five months later on 15th April 1824. It should be noted that from the time she arrived in Van Diemen's Land in 1824, the Amity was listed as 148 tons.

 

The Amity was then sold to the Government of New South Wales in 1824. On her arrival at Sydney the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, Thursday 3 June 1824, described the Amity: ‘as a fine and convenient brig, a vessel that is so well calculated for commercial purposes between the Colonies’.

 

From 1824, she was used for various journeys around the east coast of Australia, the establishment of two European settlements in New Holland, the vessel to rescue the survivor's of the Royal Charlotte, transported convicts, soldiers and stores from Sydney to outlying settlements and circumnavigated the continent, not once but twice!

 

The Amity's first assignment was to establish a new settlement at Moreton Bay, Queensland on 12th September 1824. Lieutenant Henry Miller led a group of about 70 people including soldiers of the 40th Foot Regiment, 29 convicts, explorers and their families.

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On 11th June 1825, the Royal Charlottes ran aground on Frederick Reef, north east of Queensland, where her crew steadied her, while the other crew members and the soldiers moved to shore with water and provisions before she sank. Whilst the Amity was anchored in Moreton Bay, a boat with the first mate and some survivors from the Royal Charlotte had travelled some 400 nautical miles and came towards the Amity.  She was despatched to collect the survivors and arrived on the 28th July, all were rescued, although two people died. 

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Over the next year and a half the Amity was transporting convicts, soldiers and stores from Sydney to the settlements at Port Macquarie, Norfolk Island and Moreton Bay.  

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It was decided in March 1826 by the British Government’s representative, Earl Henry Bathurst, Secretary of State and the Colonies, to despatch orders to Governor Sir Ralph Darling of New South Wales.  These orders were to establish a military garrison at King George's Sound and claim the land for the British Crown. 

 

Major Lockyer was given the privilege to carry out this important commission on 4th November 1826 and along with Captain Thomas Hansen and Lieutenant Colson Festing RN, convened without delay to discuss their route and organise appropriate supplies.

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On 9th November 1826, the brig Amity commenced her voyage that laid the foundation of what would become the first settlement of Western Australia.  Setting sail from Sydney Cove, under the command of Captain Thomas Hansen and Lieutenant Colson Festing RN, as Sailing Master, Major Edmund Lockyer, Surgeon, Isaac Scott Ninds, Edmund Morris Lockyer, Store Keeper and son of Major Lockyer, twenty three convicts and a detachment of eighteen troops from the 39th (Dorset) Regiment under Captain Joseph Wakefield’s command, three wives and two children. ​

 

After her years of government service on the Australian coast the Amity was sold to a private owner, Mr Rowlands in 1834. The Hobart Town Courier, on Friday 2nd May 1834, reported: ‘ Mr Rowlands has purchased, we learn, the beautiful brig Amity'.   The Amity continued to operate in Van Diemen's Land and by 1844 she was regularly transporting cattle from Port Albert in Victoria across Bass Strait to Hobart.

 

On 14th June 1845, the Amity at the command of Captain William Marr with a crew of nine and one passenger encountered a winter gale while entering the Bass Strait. She ran aground on an uncharted sandbank called Vansittart Shoals, near Flinders Island.  Abandoned, the crew boarded the boats and safely made it to the Flinders Island, as she broke up and the beautiful brig's fate was sealed.