The Sea Witch – A Narrative of the Experiences of Capt. Roger Murray and Others in an American Clipper Ship during the Years 1846 to 1856 ; By Alexander Laing ; New Edition, Illustrated by Gordon Grant ; Published on Murray Hill at the Port of New York by Murray Hill Books, 1944, hard cover, original blue cloth, sailing ship design on front cover, a nice tidy copy, 487pp with illustrations.

Contents : Book One: A Ship is Needed (April 1846 to May 1846) Book Two: A Ship is Built (June 1846 to December 1846) Book Three: Passage to China (December 1846 to April 1847) Book Four: The Second Voyage (July 1847 to March 1848) Book Five: Heyday (March 1848 to April 1850) Book Six: Revenges of the Ship (April 1850 to January 1853) Book Seven: The Vaka (December 1854 to March 1856) A Foreword, Which Comes Last From Foreword : Convenience doubtless will classify this book as a novel, although my intention has been rather to make it a history of manners and of a certain ship. The more curious of its readers, therefore, deserve to be acquainted with several facts that can be obvious to those only who are conversant with maritime affairs in the middle years of the 19th century. The dominant character of this history is not a person, but a personality : the clipper ship Sea Witch. There is a general agreement that the swiftest and most beautiful ailing craft of all time were built during a decade or two commencing in the 1840s. The clipper as a class was developed in America, because it was through fleetness alone that Brother Jonathan could compete with the subsidies and monopolies enjoyed by the older maritime nations. The superb British clippers, as a group, did not make their appearance until the American clipper-ship era was over ; so my story deals only with American ships….

*Please see my other listings