Early in the Spring of 1844, George Basil Dixwell wrote from Canton, China, to his brother, John James Dixwell, in Boston, 

asking him to have two fast vessels built for use on the China coast. George had been in China since the fall of 1841, 

when, at age 27, he joined Augustine Heard & Co., a newly established partnership of American commission merchants. 

The Dixwell brothers and Augustine Heard already had extensive commercial experience in India and China. 

Now George Dixwell, the company's opium specialist, wanted fast ships to give his firm a competitive edge in the drug trade.