 Her destination, it was supposed at the time, was the port of Smyrna in the Ottoman Empire (now İzmir in Turkey), where the vessel's owners – the Dublin shipping company of Ferris, Twigg & Cash – intended her to engage in a trading mission before returning to Dublin the following year.The "Ouzel", however, did not return as scheduled; nor was she seen the year after that.When a third year passed without any sign of her or her crew, it was generally assumed by the people of Dublin that she had been lost at sea with all hands.