This 704 ton ship was built at Sunderland in 1850. It was employed as a convict transport for Western Australia and left Kingstown, Ireland on June 2, 1853 bound for the Swan River Colony. She carried the eleventh of 37 shipments of male convicts destined for Western Australia. The non-stop voyage took 89 days and the Phoebe Dunbar arrived in Fremantle on August 30, 1853 with 93 passengers and 286 convicts [Erickson]. T. Michie and John W. Bowler were the captain and surgeon respectively.

There were ten deaths recorded on the convict shipping and description lists. They said eight men died at sea, one died in the harbour and one in the Convict Establishment Hospital. John Enis (2351) was the harbour death; John Carthy (2456) the hospital death; and Michael Connors (2330), Cornelius Scott (2335), David Sullivan (2391), James Normoyle (2416), Daniel Collins (2426), William McGuigan (2533), Patrick Keeffe (2545) and James Crighton (2546) died at sea. Cholera, typhus and a fractured skull were mentioned as some of the causes of death.

There were 295 convict numbers assigned for the voyage ranging from (2314 to 2608) but [Bateson] claimed that 295 convicts embarked and 285 arrived. The 8 deaths at sea and the death in the harbour do not tally with the [Bateson] arrival figure but the inclusion of the hospital death would.

Of the 93 passengers mentioned above, all 93 were pensioner guards and their families, the number being made up of 30 pensioner guards, 20 wives, 21 sons and 22 daughters.

The first death from typhus was recorded on June 21. A total of 16 convicts and passengers died on board during the voyage and 3 more deaths were recorded immediately upon disembarkation.

John W. Bowler's surgeon's journal for the voyage is preserved in the Public Record Office (PRO) in London. Researchers can view a copy on the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) microfilm reel 711 which is held in most major libraries and archives offices throughout Australia.