The Sea Witch

After loading a cargo at Coquimbo, the Sea Witch continued on down the Pacific and it was soon discovered that she was in a leaky condition and the clipper was forced to put into Valparaiso, where it was discovered that holes had been bored through her bottom. The damage was repaired and the Sea Witch sailed on around the Horn for New York, arriving there 64 days from Valparaiso in January 1855.

The Sea Witch left New York from Howland & Aspinwall's Pier 9 on April 5, 1855, on her ninth voyage bound for Hong Kong. On the South Atlantic leg of the voyage, Captain Fraser was murdered by the First Mate and the Sea Witch was forced to put in to Rio. Where Captain Lang was put in command of the Sea Witch and continued on with the voyage to Hong Kong.

The Sea Witch sailed from Amoy on December 1, 1855, with 500 coolies aboard bound for Cuba by way of Anjer and the Cape of Good Hope.

The noted naval architect and expert on the history of the Sea Witch, Melbourne Smith, picks up the tale from there.

"As the Sea Witch approached Cuba, she lost the evening breeze and slowly drifted inshore and took the beach about 12 miles west of Havana. Two Spanish steamers came to take off the Chinese coolies and crew and the Sea Witch fetched up further inshore as she was lightened. Wreckers came aboard the next day and her ballast was stolen and lightened even more. She was towed to a small landing nearby where she was claimed by the local landowner. Her owners wrote her off and a year later an unknown party set her alight and she burned to the waterline and sank. Over the following years, the tides and storms swirled around the sunken hulk and slowly washed the jetty and land away. Today her bones are almost a mile offshore as the beach has now eroded away."

The amazing ten-year career of the once proud Sea Witch that had ushered in the era of the clipper ships had sadly come to an end.

Next: The Commercial Depression of 1857

The Era of the Clipper Ships
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