Duke of York was a fir-built ship of 500 tons (bm), built in 1780 at Archangel. In 1787 her owner was "Hitchie", her master "Jn Wolff", and her trade London--South Seas, indicating that she was a whaler. More accurately, her master was John Wolfe, Woolf, or Wolf, and her owner Richard Cadman Etches. She sailed on 21 April 1787 for the South Seas.

Etches had received a license from the South Sea Company to sail