The U.S. ship ZURICH was built at New York by William H. Webb (hull #15), and launched in January 1844. 817 tons; 155 ft x 34 ft 10 in x 20 ft (length x beam x depth of hold); 2 decks; draft when loaded 17 ft. Owned in October 1852 by Jacob Surget (1/2), Mortimer Livingston (operator, 1/4), the estate of Samuel M. Fox (operator, 1/8), and Capt. William C. Thompson (1/8).

From 1844 to 1863, the ZURICH served in Fox & Livingston's Union Line of sailing packets between New York and Havre, her westbound passages averaging 35 days, her shortest passage being 21 days, her longest 56 days. The Union Line was dissolved in early 1863 as a consequence of the Civil War. Fox & Livingston sent the ZURICH on a single voyage to Buenos Aires and Montevideo, for hides and wool. She returned to New York on 18 April 1863, and shortly afterwards was sold to D. Hunter, of Ayr, Scotland; she apparently appeared in the Newry, Ireland, registry in 1866 [Robert Greenhalgh Albion,Square-riggers on Schedule: The New York Sailing Packets to England, France, and the Cotton Ports (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1938), pp. 284-285, 299, 315; Edwin L. Dunbaugh and William duBarry Thomas, William H. Webb: Shipbuilder (Glen Cove, New York: Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, 1989), pp. 162-163].

The ZURICH appears in the annual volumes of Lloyd's Register of Shipping for 1874/75-1879/80, with the following information:

Official Number: 47,137

International Signal Code: VMJK

Tonnage: 797 tons net; 691/714/671 tons net/gross/under deck (from 1876/77)

Dimensions:  159 x 35.1 x 20 ft (length x beam x depth of hold)

Master: J. Grange

Owner:
     1874/75-1875/76 - [none given]
     1876/77-1879/80 - J. Turpie

Port of Registry:
     1874/75         - [not given]
     1875/76-1879/80 - North Shields

On 13 August 1879, the ZURICH, of North Shields, 691 tons, now rigged as a bark and belonging to W. Hutchinson, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, J. Smith, master, bound from South Shields for Spezzia [La Spezia, southeast of Genoa], with coal and coke and 1 passenger, stranded on Hasborough Sand, in the North Sea, and became a total loss [Abstract Returns of Wrecks and Casualties on the Coasts of the U.K., Casualties to British Ships Elsewhere, and to Foreign Ships on the Coasts of British Possessions Abroad, 1879-1880, Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons, 1881 (Command 2906) lxxxii.993].