John W. Griffiths

John Willis Griffiths (October 6, 1809 – March 30, 1882) was an American naval architect who was influential in his design of clipper ships and his books on ship design and construction. He also designed steamships and war vessels and patented many inventions. Maritime historian William H. Thiesen wrote, "Of all the nineteenth-century American shipbuilders, John W. Griffiths did more than any other builder to champion American shipbuilding methods. An experimenter, an advocate for formal ship-design education, and a working intellectual, Griffiths proved to be most remarkable of America’s nineteenth-century shipbuilders.”

In 1845 Griffiths was employed for the shipbuilding firm of Smith & Dimon in lower Manhattan and designed the clipper ship Rainbow. Historian Dr. Larrie Ferreiro considered the Rainbow “the first of a line of ‘extreme’ clippers, with a fine, raked bow, high deadrise, and hollow waterlines.” The ship was known for fast passages but reportedly went “missing with all hands” in 1848.

Griffiths’ second clipper ship, Sea Witch, was referred to by Smithsonian curator Howard Irving Chapelle as his “masterpiece.” It was launched on December 8, 1846, and “described as the most beautiful ship of her time.” Maritime historian Melbourne Smith wrote in 1980, “Ships of twice her tonnage were built specifically to beat her but her passages home from China have not been equalled under sail to this day.”

In March 1849 the Sea Witch set a record when it sailed from Hong Kong to New York in 74 days 14 hours. It was noted on October 25, 2013, that no single-hulled sailing vessel ever broke the record. Griffiths wrote in 1855, “It will be entirely proper to add, that the model of the Sea Witch had more influence upon the subsequent configuration of fast vessels, than any other ship ever built in the United States.” The Sea Witch was wrecked on the coast of Cuba in 1856 while carrying 500 Chinese workers.

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