At the end of September 1899 the barque commenced her twelfth and last voyage from New York to Wellington with 531 tons of cargo which included 80,000 cases of kerosene. During the return passage to New York it was announced that she had been sold on 15 August to a Mr J.J. Craig, ship owner, of Auckland, New Zealand. The barque returned from New York to her new owner via Newcastle, New South Wales, where there were no fewer than eighty-nine sailing vessels and steamers detained by a strike in the surrounding coal mines which had effectively paralysed the port. When the strike was settled, the Clan Macleod loaded coal for Auckland and arrived in her new home port on 23 February 1901. She now entered the trans-Tasman trade, carrying mostly timber to Australia and coal from Newcastle on the return passage.