The clipper 'Matilda Wattenboch'

A portrait of the British-built clipper-ship 'Matilda Wattenbach' commemorating her launch in 1853. She was built at St Helier's Jersey by Fredrick Clarke for Wattenbach, Heilgers and Co. Her principal owners were J.J. Melhuish, of Liverpool, and T.H.A. Wattenbach, of London. She sailed from Liverpool on 6 December 1853 bound for Australia via Lisbon and arrived at Melbourne on 27 April 1854. She also traded between Liverpool and Calcutta under Captains John Clare and James Berriman. After three years Wattenbach became the principal of numerous part-owners, and in 1863 she was sold to Alexander Fotherignham who renamed her 'Racehorse'. Fotheringham was joined as part owner by John Smurthwaite, a Sunderland merchant, and the next voyage of the ship, its first under its new name of 'Racehorse', was from Sunderland to Hong Kong. For the next few years she traded out of London, making voyages to Swan River and Madras, to Sydney and Demerara, to Auckland and Sydney. In 1870, she was purchased by Thomas Ridley Oswald, a Sunderland shipbuilder, and in 1872 she was sold first to William Wilkinson, of London, and within a month or two to Thomas Redway, an Exmouth shipowner. Her last voyage under the British flag was made during 1869-1871, from Sunderland to Hong Kong and back to London.
British School