The paddle steamer Waterwitch was built by Curling, Young & Co. at Limehouse, on the Thames, in 1836. Registerd at 276 tons gross (228 net), she measured 156 feet in length with a 22 foot beam, and had engines by Seaward & Capel. One of a pair of identical paddlers - the other being Vivid - ordered by the Humber Union Steamship Company of Hull, they were intended to run between that city and London and both entered service during 1836. Vivid was completed first and made the journey to Hull in 25 hours at an average speed of 10 knots, a record for the route. Waterwitch was finished three weeks later and promptly set a new record herself with an average speed of 11 knots. Both vessels proved extremely popular with the travelling public and were in service just in time to benefit form the large numbers of people journeying to London for the Coronation festivities of Queen Victoria. There was however stong competition for Humber to London passenger traffic in the form of the Hull Steam Packet Company and a savage price-cutting war between the two rival concern eventually resulted in bankruptcy for Humber Union within a few short years. Their fleet of three vessels, Vivid, Waterwitch and Wilberforce - another Curling & Young ship bulit in 1837 - was sold to the General Steam Navigation Co. of London in 1841 and Waterwitch herself, still plying between Hull and the capital, survived until 1855.

These delicate panels, presumably removed from Waterwitch when she was eventually broken up, were executed by Edward Duncan who worked on the vessel in association with his father-in-law William Huggins. Huggins had been commissioned by Humber Union to paint three views of Waterwitch at anchor "for the main stateroom decoration" (the saloon ?) and these works were latterly in the possession of the Argyle Hotel, Hull. The finest image of Waterwitch is probably the starboard bow view portrait by John Ward although Reeve's 1839 engraving of Ward's painting of Vivid and Waterwitch off Orfordness is also very well known.