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Disappearance of Sylph

When: 1849
Where: En route to Singapore
Part of: Seven best-known opium clippers reported missing in the South China Sea

The opium clipper Sylph disappeared in 1849 while en route to Singapore, possibly captured and burned by pirates based on Hainan Island.

Sylph, a clipper built in 1831 and later owned by Jardine Matheson, underwent re-rigging in Hong Kong in 1848 at a cost of 11,166.22 Mexican dollars. The following year, 1849, she disappeared while en route to Singapore. The passages state she was possibly captured and burned by pirates based on Hainan Island, though this remains unconfirmed.

Sources

Sylph (1831 ship) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-05

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.