Water Witch
Books
- Fast Ships, Bad Trade Opium Clippers and the Making of the China War · Liszt Think
In 1829, the East India Company’s monopoly birthed a vessel designed to outrun monsoons and defy imperial law.
- A Fleet Takes Shape…to be an experiment and became the standard tool of the opium trade. The ships that followed the Red Rover, vessels like the Sylph and the Water Witch, refined the design rather than merely copying it. Each launch triggered a new round of speculation in the Canton clubs and the Calcutta sh…
- The Agency Houses Ascendant…e firm had once chartered vessels, paying freight to owners who bore the cost of maintenance and repair, it now began to build a fleet. The Water Witch followed, a schooner of similar design, fast and lean. The firm chartered other vessels when demand exceeded capacity, but the owned ships…
- The Water Witch’s Last RunThe captain of the Water Witch had ordered the running lights doused two hours after sunset. The brig lay four miles off the Lintin anchorage, hove-to in the dark swells…