Cutty Sark

Cutty Sark, the only survivor of the British tea clippers, is now preserved as a museum ship at Greenwich, London, as an example of the great days of sail. She was built to the order of Captain Jock Willis, son of the Captain Willis who was known as ‘Old Stormy’ and immortalized in the sea shanty ‘Stormalong’. She was built expressly as a challenge to the great British clipper Thermopylae and the two ships were almost identical in size, with a length of 64.6 metres (212 ft), a beam of 10.9 metres (36 ft), and a draught of 6.4 metres (21 ft). She was designed by Hercules Linton, and the firm of Linton and Scott was given the order to build her. However, the price it quoted was too low and the firm was forced into liquidation, and she was completed by William Denny and Brothers. launched at Dumbarton in November 1869 she took part the following year in the annual tea race from China to London.

Cutty Sark made eight voyages in the tea trade but never matched the times of the earlier clippers, her best being in 1871 when she sailed from Shanghai to the North Foreland in 107 days. Only once did she race home in company with the Thermopylae, but on that occasion lost her rudder during heavy weather in the Indian Ocean when she had worked out a lead of 640 kilometres (400 mls.).

When the sailing clippers finally had to abandon the tea trade the Cutty Sark was forced to look for cargoes wherever they were to be had, but in 1883 she began regular voyages in the wool trade from Australia. Her last wool voyage from Australia was in 1894–5, and she was then sold to the Portuguese.

In 1922, a gale forced her into Falmouth where she was seen by Captain Wilfred Dowman, who bought her and restored and re-rigged her to her original clipper rig. On his death in 1936 his widow presented her to the Thames Nautical Training College and she was towed to Greenhithe for use as a boys' training ship. In 1949, she was offered to the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, which was unable to accept her. However, largely through the hard work and enthusiasm of Mr Frank Carr (director of the National Maritime Museum, 1947–66) the London County Council sponsored a scheme for her permanent preservation and she entered a specially constructed dock at Greenwich in 1954. Work on her hull and rigging was completed in 1957, and she was then opened to the public. Funds are currently (2005) being raised for major restoration work to be undertaken.

The Cutty Sark's name comes from Robert Burns's poem ‘Tam O'Shanter’, which tells the story of a Scottish farmer who was chased by the young witch Nannie, who wore only Her cutty sark, o'Paisley harn
That while a lassie she had worn
In longitude tho' sorely scanty
It was her best, and she was vauntie.
The tea clipper's figurehead is a representation of Nannie in her cutty sark (short shift), with her left arm outstretched to catch the tail of the farmer's grey mare on which he was trying to escape.