The Thomas Perkins was a ship commissioned by the Salem merchants David Pingree (1795-1863) and Emery Johnson (1791-1845), and named for Pingree's uncle Thomas Perkins (1758-1830) (Rantoul and Champman, 69-70). The ship was constructed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1837, launching in November of that year. William Graves Jr. captained the vessel for its first five voyages, from 1837 to 1847 (Rantoul and Chapman, 69).

The first voyage of the Thomas Perkins departed Salem in November 1837. It made stops in Mobile, Alabama, Liverpool, Kolkata, Guangzhou (then Canton), Manila, and Surabaya, before arriving in New York City in early 1842. The Thomas Perkins remained in Canton for an extended period during the First Opium War, when Chinese sanctions prevented British ships from debarking goods. This allowed the Thomas Perkins to fill the profitable niche as a legal conveyor for British goods into Canton (Rantoul and Chapman, 69). Primary source evidence shows that the Thomas Perkins was involved with the smuggling of Opium in Canton, before the onset of the war. Captain Graves reported taking on "the thirteen chests of opium" in a January 12th 1839 letter to David Pingree and Emery Johnson. (MSS 901, Box 100 Folder 6).

The ship's later voyages are less thoroughly documented than the first. The second voyage departed from New York in July 1842, sailing for Manila and Canton (Rantoul and Chapman, 69). A third voyage saw the ship present in Manila in March 1844. A fourth voyage departed from New York in November 1844, travelling to Manila, Amoy, Hong Kong, and Fujian Sheng, before returning to New York in April 1846 (Log 3195+). A fifth voyage visited Canton and Manilla in April and May 1847. A sixth voyage, not documented in this collection, sailed under Captain Edmund Pike of Newburyport.

In 1849, the ship was sold to Richard S. Rogers and William D. Pinkman. It continued to sail under a number of different owners and captains until at least 1861. (Rantoul and Chapman, 69).