Gravina, a wooden-hulled clipper ship, was built in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1853 by Isaac C. Smith & Son. She was launched at 12:30 pm on 8 October. Unusually for an American-built clipper, Gravina was built for foreign owners, the Loring Brothers of Málaga, Spain. The brothers, George, Edward and Joseph, were the sons of American expatriate George Loring, who "went to Málaga as a young man and married there a very beautiful Spanish girl of sixteen years of age."Sprague 1913. p. 18. Gravina was named after Spanish Admiral Federico Carlos Gravina y Nápoli, commander of the reserve fleet under the French at the Battle of Trafalgar.Konstam 2011. p. 55.
