Protector was a 380 ton Canadian barque built and launched in 1827 in Canada. She is most well known for transporting colonists to the nascent Swan River Colony in February 1830. She was built in Lincoln, New Brunswick, Canada as a three-masted barque with square stern, no galleries, and a bust figurehead. She was launched by John Richard Portelow on 19 May 1827, and on 3 November the following year was sold by to a consortium of merchants in Bristol (England) — Edward Bevan (21 shares); William Cross (22 shares); and Francis Holladay (21 shares also). They appointed George Thomas as Master for her first voyage.