''Sea Witch'' was an American

clipper ship A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century Merchant ship, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had ...

John W. Griffiths John Willis Griffiths (October 6, 1809 – March 30, 1882) was an American naval architect who was influential in his design of clipper ships and his books on ship design and construction. He also designed steamships and war vessels and paten ...

for the

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

trading firm of

Howland & Aspinwall Howland & Aspinwall was a merchant firm based in New York City in the 1830s and 1840s. It specialized in the Pacific Ocean trade, especially the importing of goods from China. It is best known for taking a pioneering role in the financing of clipp ...

. She was launched at Smith & Dimon in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

on December 8, 1846.

Model for American clipper ship design

"In 1845, John Willis Griffiths built the fast ship ''

Rainbow A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows c ...

'' and followed it in the next year with the even faster ''Sea Witch''. Both vessels would have tremendous impact on merchant hull design.Somerville, Col. Duncan S. ''The Aspinwall Empire,'' pp. 22-23, Mystic Seaport Museum, Inc., Mystic, Connecticut, 1983. . ''Sea Witch'', in fact, had more influence on the configuration of fast vessels than any other ship built in the United States. Vessels built in general accordance with the ''Sea Witch'' model were known as clippers, a term already well entrenched in the language of fast vessels."

Construction

''Sea Witch'' was 192 feet in length, had a 43-foot beam, and was of 908 tons burthen. She was designed and built by the shipbuilding firm of Smith & Dimon in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

as a purpose-built vessel for the speedy movement of high-value freight, such as

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainl ...

and

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...

, from China to the United States East Coast. To this end, she was very heavily sparred and built with especially tall masts for a vessel of her size. Her 140-foot mainmast carried five tiers of sails, as did the shorter foremast and mizzenmast. She was briefly the tallest ship afloat, and is credited with being one of the first American "clipper ships." "History of the 'Sea Witch'", accessed November 28, 2007
/ref>

Figurehead

"The figurehead was a Chinese dragon with an open mouth and a partly coiled tail. The hull was painted black with a contrasting sheerline strip at deck level and the spars were all bright work."

Hong-Kong to New York record holder, 1849-2003

Howland & Aspinwall gave the command of ''Sea Witch'' to Captain Robert Waterman, known in the trade as "Bully Bob" Waterman. In 1847, under Waterman, she made a record-setting run from Hong Kong to New York in 77 days. She lowered this record to 74 days under the same captain in 1849. This March 1849 mark is one of the longest-lived human speed records, bettered only in May 2003 by the

trimaran A trimaran (or double-outrigger) is a multihull boat that comprises a main hull and two smaller outrigger hulls (or "floats") which are attached to the main hull with lateral beams. Most modern trimarans are sailing yachts designed for recreati ...

''Great American II'' in 72 days 21 hours 11 minutes 38 seconds. Rich du Moulin, one of the sailors on the ''Great American II'', noted that ''Sea Witch'' had faced greater obstacles. He said that the ''Sea Witch'' did not have the advantage of modern technology or weather forecasts from outside sources. Du Moulin wrote, “The power of the ''Sea Witch'' in heavy seas and strong winds is still awesome, and it was carrying cargo! For me it was essential to have the ''Sea Witch'' as a competitor. Without the competitive element, I am not sure I could have handled this long voyage.” As of October 25, 2013, ''Sea Witch'' continues to hold the Hong Kong-New York record for a

monohull image:monohull.svg, right A monohull is a type of boat having only one hull (watercraft), hull, unlike multihulled boats which can have two or more individual hulls connected to one another. Fundamental concept Among the earliest hulls were simple ...

ed sailing vessel.

Voyages

After gold was discovered in California, ''Sea Witch''s owners, Howland & Aspinwall, transferred her from the China trade to the new

Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramírez ...

run from the East Coast to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. In early 1850, ''Sea Witch'' completed this passage in 97 days, the first vessel ever to do so in less than 100 days. Later in the 1850s, ''Sea Witch'' physically deteriorated and her place in the fast-freight trade was taken over by newer vessels. The aging clipper ship was reassigned to serve as a

steerage Steerage is a term for the lowest category of passenger accommodation in a ship. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century considerable numbers of persons travelled from their homeland to seek a new life elsewhere, in many cases North America ...

vessel carrying

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

to the Western Hemisphere. In 1856, with approximately 500 immigrants from China on board, she ran aground 12 miles (19 km) west of Havana. "Wreck of the 'Sea Witch'", accessed November 28, 2007

Painting and models

- Oil painting by unidentified Chinese artist, Peabody Museum

Proposals for ''Sea Witch'' replica

Proposals for the US Pavilion at

Shanghai Expo 2010 Expo 2010, officially the Expo 2010 Shanghai China, was held on both banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China, from 1 May to 31 October 2010. It was a major World Expo registered by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), in the tr ...

References

{{coord missing, Caribbean Sea Tea clippers California clippers Age of Sail merchant ships of the United States Merchant ships of the United States Passenger ships of the United States Ships built in New York City Chinese-American history Shipwrecks in the Caribbean Sea Maritime incidents in 1856 1846 ships Ships designed by John W. Griffiths