Kingfisher was an extreme clipper built in 1853 that sailed on the San Francisco route as well as to Hawaii on its way to China. It eventually sailed out of Uruguay. She was one of the longest lived clipper ships, with a sailing life of 36 years and 5 months. A sailing card advertised her.

She had a small deckhouse aft, and a larger deckhouse forward. The hull was black, with pearl colored bulwarks, and blue waterways on the upper deck. The hull sheathing was yellow metal. Kingfisher had deck structures and hatchway coamings of East India teak.

This was one of the relatively rare appearances of teak in an American-built clipper, other than in small turned stanchions.

She had:

Crane’s self-acting chain stoppers; two capstans, one on the topgallant forecastle, one on the quarterdeck; patent hold pumps; a force pump; Emerson’s patent ventilators.

In the early 1860s, Joe Taylor, a member of the Backus’ Minstrels troupe en route to Shanghai via Hawaii, described Kingfisher as follows:

Probably no sailing vessel ever went to sea, better equipped for the comfort and pleasure of the passengers and crew than the Kingfisher. She carried two cows and two goats, together with pigs and poultry in abundance. Wines, liquors and cigars were distributed as free as water among the passengers, twenty-two in number; Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Daniels being the only ladies.

Kingfisher arrived in Honolulu: