William Clifton
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.
- The Red Rover’s Revolution…and the most to gain, from whatever came next. In Calcutta, in the autumn of 1829, the next thing was taking shape on the stocks at Captain William Clifton’s yard. Clifton had built ships before. He knew the Bengal trade, the pilots, the sandbars, and the monsoon. But the vessel taking form und…
- A Fleet Takes Shape…ht wait weeks while the market moved against her. The Red Rover, built in 1829, was a 254-ton clipper built, owned, and operated by Captain William Clifton, and she was one of the fastest opium clippers running between Calcutta and Lintin in the 1830s. She was modeled after an American War of 1…
- The Lintin AnchorageThe Red Rover dropped anchor off Lintin Island in the spring of 1833, her hull still bearing the dark paint that marked her as one of William Clifton’s vessels. The voyage from Calcutta had taken seventeen days. Boats lowered from her davits. Men in loose cotton shirts rowed toward the re…