Chinese School, circa 1840

Seen here at anchor in the Hooghly, looking north-east towards Esplanade Row, the Waterwitch was one of the most celebrated of the clippers transporting opium from India to the China coast, being described as 'the prima donna of Indian beauties' (B. Lubbock, The Opium Clippers, Glasgow, 1933, p.238). Built in 1831 at Kidderpore, she was one of the few vessels capable of making two voyages a year between India and China, making the return run from the Capsingmun anchorage to Calcutta in 1838 in only 29 days, four days faster than her nearest rival.

Opium had replaced silver in the 18th century as the currency used by the East India Company to pay for tea in China. The Company's trafficing of the drug, cultivated in India, to China, led to prohibition in China in 1799 and eventually to the Opium Wars of the 19th century.