The American clipper Seawitch riding the ocean swell

Designed by John Griffith and built in the New York yard of Smith & Dimon in 1846, the clipper Seawitch was ordered by the New York merchants Howland & Aspinwall for their trading fleet. Measured at 908 tons and 170 feet in length with a 34 foot beam, she was a handsome ship - rakish and heavily sparred - with the figurehead of a Chinese dragon. Her maiden voyage was perfectly satisfactory but on her second trip out to China (1847-48), she raced home from Hong Kong in a remarkable 77 days, the fastest run on record up to that date. Seemingly blessed with good fortune, almost all her passages were fast ones until, on her ninth voyage to the East, her luck changed. Leaving New York on 5^th April 1855, she first had to put into Rio with the body of her captain who had been murdered by the mate, whilst on the return journey from Amoy carrying 500 coolies, she struck a reef about 12 miles off Havana on 28^th March 1856 and became a total loss.