How would I learn more about a sailing vessel and its dates of departure & arrival?

There are several types of records relating to ships including lists of voyages, crew, passengers and cargo.The Maritime History Archive has a great website that provides information on where to locate information on vessels that sailed in Canadian waters.

However, if seeking information on passengers note that these records do not exist prior to 1865.  Passenger lists from 1865-1922 can be found at Library & Archives Canada.

Is there a CDN oriented search engine that against a name inquiry will return place names, ages and related persons similar to www.peoplefinders.com or www.intellius.com for the States? I must be missing something,or maybe CDN privacy laws restrict this.

No, the closest is http://canada411.ca which lists only names, addresses & phone numbers of telephone subscribers.

Is there a database/website in Canada similar to the Social Security Death Index in the USA, and if so what time period does it cover and where do I access it?

No, Canada does not have a similar database.  We do have Social Insurance but those records remain private.

How do I go about finding a death & burial that occurred about 1848?

Our Research By Year pages detail what records are available during specific time periods. For 1848 see the 1840-1849 page. As a death during this time period pre-dates Vital Registration you will have to seek out church and cemetery records.

Also see our links page for a link to the genealogy group that covers the area where the death took place. Many genealogy groups have published transcripts of local cemeteries plus have a wealth of local knowledge.

As well be sure to check out the Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid and CanadaGenWeb's Cemetery Project.

In the 1861 Ontario census people are listed as "inmates". Any idea what "inmate" means?

One of the column headings of the 1861 census is "Names of Inmates" and refers to all persons enumerated. In this case inmate would mean those living within each dwelling enumerated.