The four-masted American schooner Howard Smith was built by J.M. Brooks & Son at East Boston, Massachusetts, in 1888. Measuring 186 feet in length, she had a 34½ foot beam and was registered at 729 tons. She was built for Gardner B. Reynolds, the leading coal merchant of Newport, RhodeIsland, and was commanded for him by Captain Clifford until she was wrecked on the Boboy Shoals, Georgio, on 27 October 1890.