Ariel was a clipper ship famous for making fast voyages between China and England in the late 1860s.

After 99 days and almost 16,000 miles (26,000 km) the leaders were still tied and raced within sight of each other the full length of the English Channel and into the Thames.

She is assumed by most who knew her to have been fatally pooped (i.e, had a wave break over the stern) - her fine lines always made her at risk of this.

[2]: 157 [3]: 55  Around August 1872 the remains of a teak-built ship's life-boat carrying a brass fitting with the gothic-script letter A were found on King Island in Bass Strait.

It was believed to have come from the missing vessel, which, if the assumption was correct, probably foundered in the Southern Ocean after rounding the Cape of Good Hope.