An oil painting by an unidentified artist shows the Polly en route to Portland in 1847.

Pollywas launched in Amesbury, Massachusetts, in 1806, from the shipyard of Richard Currier.

She ran as a packet from Boston and Portland to points on Penobscot Bay and River, owned and operated out of Prospect. She carried wood and passengers to Boston, returning with passengers and a general cargo, largely supplies for the inhabitants of the lower Penobscot Valley.

Originally a sloop, the Polly was changed to a schooner some time around 1850 when she was extensively repaired and rebuilt by Jonathan Tinker in his shipyard on Tinker's Island, west of Mount Desert. She was again repaired about 1867 by Captain Ephraim Pray, at Mount Desert.

On April 26, 1874, she went ashore in a heavy gale of wind and snow at Owl's Head, and was bought as she lay on the beach by Captain Lewis A. Arey, who used her in the lumber-carrying trade until 1885, when she was once more thoroughly repaired, being given a new top and ceiling and partially replanked, and became a lime-freighter.