120-571: East Greenwich Pleasaunce is a public park in East Greenwich , in south-east London . It is situated to the north side of the railway line between Maze Hill and Westcombe Park railway stations and south of the A206 Woolwich Road. The park, opened in 1857, was originally the graveyard of Greenwich Hospital . Due to construction of a railway tunnel as part of the London and Greenwich Railway ,
240-680: A big increase in the number of steamers, which were in high demand. The rate of freight to London that was given to steamers was nearly twice that paid to the sailing ships. Additionally, the insurance premium for a cargo of tea in a steamer was substantially less than for a sailing vessel. So successful were the steamers using the Suez Canal that, in 1871, 45 were built in Clyde shipyards alone for Far Eastern trade. The numbers of tea clippers sailing to China each year steadily reduced, with many ships being sold and moving to general cargo work. Costs were kept to
360-466: A cadet ship and was transferred to permanent dry dock at Greenwich , London, for public display. Cutty Sark is listed by National Historic Ships as part of the National Historic Fleet (the nautical equivalent of a Grade 1 Listed Building ). She is one of only three remaining intact composite construction (wooden hull on an iron frame) ships from the nineteenth century, the others being
480-419: A cafeteria and a small war memorial. 51°29′05″N 0°00′50″E / 51.4846°N 0.01402°E / 51.4846; 0.01402 Greenwich Greenwich ( / ˈ ɡ r ɛ n ɪ tʃ / GREN -itch , /- ɪ dʒ / -ij , / ˈ ɡ r ɪ n -/ GRIN - ) is an area in south-east London , England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London . It
600-622: A cargo of wine, spirits and beer bound for Shanghai . The return journey, carrying 1,305,812 pounds (592,306 kg) of tea from Shanghai, began 25 June, arriving 13 October in London via the Cape of Good Hope . Cutty Sark sailed in eight "tea seasons", from London to China and back. Cutty Sark ' s launch coincided with the opening of the Suez Canal to shipping in 1869. Her first trip encountered significant competition with steamships. The route from
720-493: A cleaner hull, she could sail faster. She was built for me. I superintended the building and fitting of her, and I never sailed a finer ship. At ten or twelve knots she did not disturb the water at all. Although she was a very sharp ship, just like a yacht, her spread of canvas was enormous, ... She was the fastest ship of her day, a grand ship, a ship that will last forever. —Captain George Moodie One day we sighted
840-536: A customer requiring the highest standards. Payment would be made in seven instalments as the ship progressed, but with a penalty of £5 for every day the ship was late. The ship was to be built to Lloyd's A1 standard and her construction was supervised on behalf of Willis by Captain George Moodie, who would command her when completed. Construction delays occurred when the Lloyd's inspectors required additional strengthening in
960-491: A historic survivor, the ship was opened to the public and visitors would be rowed out to inspect her. Dowman died in 1936 and the ship was given by Catharine Dowman, his widow, along with £5,000 for maintenance, to the Incorporated Thames Nautical Training College, HMS Worcester at Greenhithe . She was towed to Greenhithe by tug. The ship was crewed by cadets, 15-year-old Robert Wyld steering
1080-482: A lead of some 400 nautical miles (460 mi; 740 km), but then lost her rudder in a heavy gale after passing through the Sunda Strait . John Willis's brother was on board the ship and ordered Moodie to put into Cape Town for repairs. Moodie refused, and instead the ship's carpenter Henry Henderson constructed a new rudder from spare timbers and iron. This took six days, working in gales and heavy seas which meant
1200-476: A lighter wind. The ship was named after Cutty-sark , the nickname of the witch Nannie Dee in Robert Burns 's 1791 poem Tam o' Shanter . The ship's figurehead , the original of which has been attributed to carver Fredrick Hellyer of Blackwall, is a stark white carving of a bare-breasted Nannie Dee with long black hair holding a grey horse's tail in her hand. In the poem she wore a linen sark ( Scots :
1320-495: A longer distance, gave steamships not only a more predictable voyage time, but a substantially quicker one. Less obviously, steamship design had taken a large step forward in 1866 with Agamemnon , using higher boiler pressure and a compound engine, so obtaining a large improvement in fuel efficiency. Ships of this type could compete with clippers before the Suez Canal opened. When the tea clippers arrived in China in 1870, they found
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#17328527486461440-478: A minimum and rigs were often reduced to barque so that a smaller crew was needed. Cutty Sark ' s well-known race against Thermopylae took place in 1872, the two ships leaving Shanghai together on 18 June. Both ships were of similar size: length, beam and depths were within one foot (0.3 m) of each other. The Thermopylae had a slightly larger capacity: 991 compared to 963 (GRT) or 948 compared to 921 (net). Two weeks later Cutty Sark had built up
1560-412: A short chemise or undergarment ), that she had been given as a child, which explains why it was cutty , or in other words far too short. The erotic sight of her dancing in such a short undergarment caused Tam to cry out " Weel done, Cutty-sark", which subsequently became a well-known catchphrase . Originally, carvings by Hellyer of the other scantily clad witches followed behind the figurehead along
1680-423: A strong, rigid ship; diagonal members prevent racking ( shearing , where frame rectangles become parallelograms ). Less working and leaking of the hull meant less crew time spent pumping, allowing more time to be spent on changes of sail. The wrought-iron-framed hull also took up less cargo space than an all-wood hull would have done. The Muntz metal sheeting reduced fouling of Cutty Sark ' s hull; with
1800-415: A vessel, a mere speck on the horizon, astern of us, and the way she came into view it was evident she was travelling much faster than ourselves. 'Bringing the wind up with her' was remarked on board, and that seemed the only feasible conclusion to arrive at and account for the manner in which she overhauled us. In a few hours she was alongside us, and proved to be the famous British clipper Cutty Sark , one of
1920-400: Is 0.628; this allows comparison with US-built clippers studied by Howard I. Chapelle . After water-line length, the prismatic coefficient is the next most important determinant of potential hull speed. Unladen, or with a cargo of low density, ballast was required for stability. For example, when she was loaded with wool, 200 tons of ballast was carried. The largest wool cargo she ever carried
2040-577: Is a British clipper ship. Built on the River Leven , Dumbarton, Scotland in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line , she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, at the end of a long period of design development for this type of vessel, which ended as steamships took over their routes. She was named after the short shirt of the fictional witch in Robert Burns ' poem Tam o' Shanter , first published in 1791. After
2160-580: Is first attested in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 918, where it appears as Gronewic . It is recorded as Grenewic in 964, and as Grenawic in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1013. It is Grenviz in the Domesday Book of 1086, and Grenewych in the Taxatio Ecclesiastica of 1291. The name means 'green wic' , indicating that Greenwich was what is known as a -wich town or emporium , from
2280-515: Is next to North Greenwich Underground station , about 3 miles (4.8 km) north east from the Greenwich town centre, north west of Charlton . Pear Tree Wharf was associated with the gas works, being used to unload coal for the manufacturing of town gas, and is now home to the Greenwich Yacht Club . The Greenwich Millennium Village is a modern urban regeneration development to the south of
2400-537: Is situated 5.5 miles (8.9 km) east-south-east of Charing Cross . Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time . The town became the site of a royal palace, the Palace of Placentia , from the 15th century and was the birthplace of many Tudors , including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I . The palace fell into disrepair during
2520-691: The Blackwall Tunnel , remains solidly working class , the manpower for one eighth of London's heavy industry . West Greenwich is a hybrid: the spirit of Nelson, the Cutty Sark , the Maritime Museum, an industrial waterfront and a number of elegant houses, ripe for development. Royal charters granted to English colonists in North America, as well as in Company Bombay and St Helena , often used
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#17328527486462640-527: The Docklands Light Railway is one minute's walk away, with connections to central London and the London Underground . Greenwich Pier is next to the ship, and is served by scheduled river boats from piers in central London. A tourist information office stands to the east of the ship. By the early 2000s, there were serious concerns about corrosion of the iron internal structure, and the hull
2760-671: The English Civil War and was demolished to eventually be replaced by the Royal Naval Hospital for Sailors , designed by Sir Christopher Wren and his assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor . These buildings became the Royal Naval College in 1873, and they remained a military education establishment until 1998 when they passed into the hands of the Greenwich Foundation. The historic rooms within these buildings remain open to
2880-853: The Java Sea for three days. In desperation as matters moved from bad to worse, he committed suicide by jumping overboard and disappeared. He was replaced as Master by William Bruce, who proved to be a drunken incompetent who claimed pay for non-existent crewmen and managed to set sail with inadequate provisions, resulting in the crew starving. An inquiry in New York in April 1882 resulted in the captain and mate being suspended and replaced by Captain Moore, previously of Blackadder . In December 1883, Cutty Sark departed Newcastle , New South Wales with 4,289 bales of wool and 12 casks of tallow, arriving in London in just 83 days. This
3000-643: The London and Greenwich Railway (L&GR) completed the first steam railway in London. It started at London Bridge and had its terminus at London Street (now Greenwich High Road). It was also the first to be built specifically for passengers, and the first ever elevated railway, having 878 arches over its almost four mile stretch. South of the railway's viaduct over Deptford Creek is a Victorian pumping station constructed in 1864 as part of Sir Joseph Bazalgette 's London sewerage system (the Southern Outfall Sewer flows under Greenwich town centre). In 1853
3120-529: The London underground , it is now oil- and gas-powered and serves as a backup station for London Underground. East Greenwich also has a small park, East Greenwich Pleasaunce , which was formerly the burial ground of Greenwich Hospital. The O 2 (formerly the Millennium Dome ) was built on part of the site of East Greenwich Gas Works , a disused British Gas site on the Greenwich Peninsula . It
3240-636: The Metropolitan Board of Works , was formed in 1889, the parish merged with those of Charlton-next-Woolwich , Deptford St Nicholas and Kidbrooke to create the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich . When local government in London was again reformed in 1965 , it merged with most of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich , creating what is now the Royal Borough of Greenwich , a local authority district of Greater London. The place-name 'Greenwich'
3360-624: The Old Royal Naval College for the company's 150th-anniversary celebrations. To mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II , it was announced on 5 January 2010 that on 3 February 2012 the London Borough of Greenwich would become the fourth to have Royal Borough status, the others being the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames , the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead . The status
3480-563: The River Thames . Along with Blackheath Westcombe, Charlton , Glyndon, Woolwich Riverside, and Woolwich Common , it elects a Member of Parliament (MP) for Greenwich and Woolwich ; currently the MP is Matthew Pennycook . The town of Greenwich is built on a broad platform to the south of the outside of a broad meander in the River Thames, with a safe deep water anchorage lying in the river. To
3600-455: The Spanish Armada campaign there in 1588. James I carried out the final remodelling work on Greenwich Palace, granting the manor to his wife Queen Anne of Denmark . In 1616 Anne commissioned Inigo Jones to design and build the surviving Queen's House as the final addition to the palace. Charles I granted the manor to his wife Queen Henrietta Maria , for whom Inigo Jones completed
3720-632: The Thames for repairs. In December 1877 the ship sailed from London to Sydney, where she took on coal for Shanghai, arriving there in April. However, the ship was unable to find any cargo of tea for a return trip to London—the days of the tea race were over. The master, Captain Tiptaft, died in October while still in Shanghai and was replaced by the first mate, James Wallace. The ship now had to take different cargoes around
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3840-424: The big improvement in the fuel efficiency of steamships in 1866, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 gave them a shorter route to China, so Cutty Sark spent only a few years on the tea trade before turning to the trade in wool from Australia , where she held the record time to Britain for ten years. Continuing improvements in steam technology early in the 1880s meant that steamships also came to dominate
3960-498: The stern was too barrel shaped and so gave Cutty Sark a squarer stern with less tumblehome . The broader stern increased the buoyancy of the ship's stern, making it lift more in heavy seas so it was less likely that waves would break over the stern, and over the helmsman at the wheel. Cutty Sark was given masts that followed the design of The Tweed , with similar good rake and the foremast on both placed further aft than usual. A contract for Cutty Sark ' s construction
4080-477: The terra regis , while all others held their lands, directly or indirectly, under the monarch. Land outside the physical boundaries of England, as in America, was treated as belonging constructively to one of the existing royal manors, and from Tudor times grants frequently used the name of the manor of East Greenwich, but some 17th-century grants named the castle of Windsor . Places in North America that have taken
4200-580: The 17th century and formed from the hunting grounds of the Royal Palace of Placentia . The park rises towards Blackheath and at the top of this hill is a statue of James Wolfe , commander of the British expedition to capture Quebec . Nearby a major group of buildings within the park includes the former Royal Observatory, Greenwich ; the Prime Meridian passes through this building. Greenwich Mean Time
4320-534: The 1939–1945 war. In 1926 the Pleasaunce was sold to the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich , the Admiralty reserving rights of further burials. Railings around the tombstones were removed and part of the ground was landscaped as a park. Today, the Pleasaunce has a small children's playground (installed in 2001), a community centre (The Bridge, formerly the under-5s One O'clock Club run by Royal Borough of Greenwich ),
4440-718: The 20th century, with the siting of the Cutty Sark and Gipsy Moth IV next to the river front, and the National Maritime Museum in the former buildings of the Royal Hospital School in 1934. Historically an ancient parish in the Blackheath Hundred of Kent, the town formed part of the growing conurbation of London in the 19th century. When the County of London , an administrative area designed to replace
4560-525: The Cutty Sark Preservation Society, in June 1953. The restoration, re-rigging and preparation for public exhibition was estimated to cost £250,000. Cutty Sark was preserved as a museum ship , and has since become a popular tourist attraction, and part of the National Historic Fleet . She is located near the centre of Greenwich , in south-east London, close to the National Maritime Museum ,
4680-581: The Cutty Sark site, a circular building contains the entrance to the Greenwich foot tunnel , opened on 4 August 1902. This connects Greenwich to the Isle of Dogs on the northern side of the River Thames. The north exit of the tunnel is at Island Gardens , from where the famous view of Greenwich Hospital painted by Canaletto can be seen. Rowing has been part of life on the river at Greenwich for hundreds of years and
4800-501: The Dome. Enderby's Wharf is a site associated with submarine cable manufacture for over 150 years. South of the former Naval College is the National Maritime Museum housed in buildings forming another symmetrical group and grand arcade incorporating the Queen's House , designed by Inigo Jones . Continuing to the south, Greenwich Park is a Royal Park of 183 acres (0.7 km ), laid out in
4920-490: The East India Import Dock to the special dry dock at Greenwich. The skipper on this occasion was 83-year-old Captain C.E. Irving, who had sailed the world three times in her before he was 17. The river pilot was Ernest Coe. Thereafter the entrance tunnel to the dry dock was filled in, the river wall rebuilt and the work of re-rigging began. The foundation stone of the dry dock was laid by The Duke of Edinburgh, patron of
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5040-501: The Far East to London (and many other European ports) through the Suez Canal was shorter by about 3,300 nautical miles (6,100 km; 3,800 mi), compared to sailing round the Cape of Good Hope. The route round Africa is in excess of 14,000 nmi (26,000 km; 16,000 mi). Typically a clipper might log significantly more than that by planning her route for favourable winds. Whilst it
5160-548: The Franciscan Observants were suppressed; refounded as Franciscan Conventual, the friary was dissolved in 1538, then re-established in 1555 for Observants, before the friars were finally expelled in 1559 and the friary was demolished in 1662. Ultimately it was because the palace and its grounds were a royal possession (with a useful hill) that it was chosen as the site for Charles II 's Royal Observatory, from which stemmed Greenwich's subsequent global role as originator of
5280-625: The King Charles block was completed. Charles II also redesigned and replanted Greenwich Park and founded and built the Royal Observatory . Prince James (later King James II & VII ), as Duke of York and Lord Admiral until 1673, was often at Greenwich with his brother Charles and, according to Samuel Pepys , he proposed the idea of creating a Royal Naval Hospital. This was eventually established at Greenwich by his daughter Mary II , who in 1692–1693 commissioned Christopher Wren to design
5400-628: The King William building that was operational between 1962 and 1996. The reactor was decommissioned and removed in 1999. To the east of the Naval College is the Trinity Hospital almshouse, founded in 1613, the oldest surviving building in the town centre. This is next to the massive brick walls and the landing stage of Greenwich Power Station . Built between 1902 and 1910 as a coal-fired station to supply power to London's tram system , and later
5520-460: The Latin ' vicus '. The settlement later became known as East Greenwich to distinguish it from West Greenwich or Deptford Strond , the part of Deptford adjacent to the River Thames , but the use of East Greenwich to mean the whole of the town of Greenwich died out in the 19th century. However, Greenwich was divided into the registration subdistricts of Greenwich East and Greenwich West from
5640-671: The Queen's House. During the English Civil War , the palace was used as a biscuit factory and prisoner-of-war camp. Then, in the Interregnum , the palace and park were seized to become a 'mansion' for the Lord Protector . By the time of the Restoration , the Palace of Placentia had fallen into disuse and was pulled down. New buildings began to be established as a grand palace for Charles II , but only
5760-436: The River Thames off Greenwich for over three years, with the army being encamped on the hill above. From here they attacked Kent and, in the year 1012, took the city of Canterbury , making Archbishop Alphege their prisoner for seven months in their camp at Greenwich, at that time within the county of Kent. They stoned him to death for his refusal to allow his ransom (3,000 pieces of silver) to be paid; and kept his body, until
5880-561: The Royal Hospital for Seamen (now the Old Royal Naval College ). The work was begun under her widower William III in 1696 and completed by Hawksmoor . Queen Anne and Prince George of Denmark continued to patronise the project. George I landed at Greenwich from Hanover on his accession in 1714. His successor George II granted the Royal Hospital for Seamen the forfeited estates of the Jacobite Earl of Derwentwater , which allowed
6000-487: The Thames. The two ships were locked together after the collision which forced Cutty Sark ' s jibboom into Worcester ' s forecastle rails, snapping the boom before scraping along Worcester ' s starboard side. Cutty Sark ' s figurehead lost an arm in the process. Worcester was a condemned hulk, sunk at her moorings at the time, photographs showing her lying on her starboard side with her starboard side near
6120-547: The beginning of civil registration in 1837, the boundary running down what is now Greenwich Church Street and Croom's Hill , although more modern references to " East " and " West " Greenwich probably refer to the areas east and west of the Royal Naval College and National Maritime Museum corresponding with the West Greenwich council ward . An article in The Times of 13 October 1967 stated: East Greenwich , gateway to
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#17328527486466240-407: The blossoming of a stick that had been immersed in his blood. For this miracle his body was released to his followers, he achieved sainthood for his martyrdom and, in the 12th century, the parish church was dedicated to him. The present church on the site west of the town centre is St Alfege's Church , designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1714 and completed in 1718. The Domesday Book of 1086 records
6360-437: The bow, but these were removed by Willis in deference to 'good taste'. Tam o' Shanter riding Meg was to be seen along the ship's quarter . The motto " Where theres a will is a way " was inscribed along the taffrail , with variable spaces enabling also the reading Where there(')s a Willis away . The Tweed , which acted as a model for much of the ship which followed her, had a figurehead depicting Tam o' Shanter. Cutty Sark
6480-527: The building to be completed by 1751. In 1805, George III granted the Queen's House to the Royal Naval Asylum (an orphanage school), which amalgamated in 1821–1825 with the Greenwich Hospital School. Extended with the buildings that now house the National Maritime Museum , it was renamed the Royal Hospital School by Queen Victoria in 1892. George IV donated nearly 40 paintings to
6600-600: The buildings are let to the University of Greenwich and one, the King Charles block, to Trinity College of Music . Within the complex is the former college dining room, the Painted Hall , this was painted by James Thornhill , and the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul , with an interior designed by James 'Athenian' Stuart . The Naval College had a training reactor, the JASON reactor , within
6720-426: The chief executive of the Cutty Sark Trust, revealed that at least half of the "fabric" (timbers, etc.) of the ship had not been on site as it had been removed during the preservation work. Doughty stated that the trust was most worried about the state of iron framework to which the fabric was attached. He did not know how much more the ship would cost to restore, but estimated it at an additional £5–10 million, bringing
6840-403: The clipper City of Adelaide , now in Port Adelaide , South Australia and the warship HMS Gannet in Chatham . The beached skeleton of Ambassador , of 1869 lying near Punta Arenas , Chile is the only other significant remnant of this construction method. The ship has been damaged by fire twice in recent years, first on 21 May 2007 while undergoing conservation. She was restored and
6960-413: The creation of the National Maritime Museum , and Mary presented the museum with many items. The Prince Albert, Duke of York (later George VI ), laid the foundation stone of the new Royal Hospital School when it moved out to Holbrook , Suffolk. In 1937 his first public act as king (three weeks before coronation) was to open the National Maritime Museum in the buildings vacated by the school. The king
7080-428: The east between the Vanbrugh and Maze Hill Gates is the site of a Roman villa or temple. A small area of red paving tesserae protected by railings marks the spot. It was excavated in 1902 and 300 coins were found dating from the emperors Claudius and Honorius to the 5th century. This was excavated by the Channel 4 television programme Time Team in 1999, broadcast in 2000, and further investigations were made by
7200-439: The east, on Croom's Hill , was constructed inside the shell of a Victorian music hall. Beginning life in 1855 as an annexe to the Rose and Crown, the music hall was rebuilt in 1871 by Charles Crowder and subsequently operated under many names. Further south on Croom's Hill, the Roman Catholic church of Our Ladye Star of the Sea was opened in 1851. The meridian was established in 1851. George V and Queen Mary both supported
7320-495: The event, completing the ship meant the company's creditors were owed even more money than when work had first been halted. Cutty Sark has a registered length of 212.5 feet (64.77 m), with a depth of hold of 21 feet (6.40 m) and a net tonnage of 921. The hull is one of the sharpest of all the tea clippers: she has a coefficient of under deck tonnage of 0.55, compared to Thermopylae at 0.58. Cutty Sark ' s prismatic coefficient , another measure of hull sharpness,
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#17328527486467440-496: The fastest ships afloat. She passed us going two feet to our one, and in a short time was hull down ahead of us. —Wool clipper crewman, 1879 The maximum logged speed for Cutty Sark was 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph). Her greatest recorded distance in noon to noon sights was 363 nautical miles (672 km; 418 mi) averaging 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph), although she recorded 2,164 nautical miles (4,008 km; 2,490 mi) in six days, which given
7560-403: The fastest trip record, achieving 77 days on his first outward trip and 73 days returning to Britain from Australia. He achieved this by taking a more southerly route than previously, to catch the strongest winds in the Roaring Forties despite having to face icebergs, gales and storms whipped up by the winds he sought. Cutty Sark was the fastest ship on the wool trade for ten years. In July 1889
7680-409: The first Greenwich Regatta was held in 1785. The annual Great River Race along the Thames Tideway finishes at the Cutty Sark. The nearby Trafalgar Rowing Centre in Crane Street is home to Curlew and Globe rowing clubs. The Old Royal Naval College is Sir Christopher Wren 's domed masterpiece at the centre of the heritage site. The site is administered by the Greenwich Foundation and several of
7800-414: The former Greenwich Hospital , and Greenwich Park . She is also a prominent landmark on the route of the London Marathon and marks the finish of The Big Half . She usually flies signal flags from her ensign halyard reading "JKWS", which is the code representing Cutty Sark in the International Code of Signals , introduced in 1857. The ship is in the care of the Cutty Sark Trust, whose president,
7920-423: The hospital in 1824, at a stroke creating a gallery in the Painted Hall . These now form the Greenwich Hospital Collection at the National Maritime Museum. Subsequently, William IV and Queen Adelaide were both regular donors and visitors to the gallery. Queen Victoria rarely visited Greenwich, but in 1845 her husband Prince Albert personally bought Nelson's Trafalgar coat for the Naval Gallery. In 1838
8040-400: The local Scottish Presbyterian community built a church, St Mark's, nearby which was extended twice in the 1860s during the ministry of Adolph Saphir , eventually accommodating 1,000 worshippers. In 1864 opposite the railway terminus, theatrical entrepreneur Sefton Parry built the thousand seater New Greenwich Theatre . William Morton was one of its more successful managers. The theatre
8160-422: The log of the modern passenger steamship SS Britannia recorded that when steaming at 15 to 16 knots she was overtaken in the night by a sailing ship doing 17 knots, which proved to be Cutty Sark . Eventually steamships began to dominate the wool trade too and it ceased to be profitable for a sailing ship. In 1895 Jock Willis sold Cutty Sark to the Portuguese firm Joaquim Antunes Ferreira for £1,250. She
8280-525: The longer sailing route to Australia, and the ship was sold to the Portuguese company Ferreira and Co. in 1895 and renamed Ferreira . She continued as a cargo ship until purchased in 1922 by retired sea captain Wilfred Dowman, who used her as a training ship operating from Falmouth, Cornwall . After his death, Cutty Sark was transferred to the Thames Nautical Training College , Greenhithe, in 1938 where she became an auxiliary cadet training ship alongside HMS Worcester . By 1954, she had ceased to be useful as
8400-488: The manor (for life) to Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter , who died at Greenwich in 1426. The palace was created by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester , Henry V's younger brother and regent to his son - Henry VI - in 1447; he enclosed the park and erected a tower ( Greenwich Castle ) on the hill now occupied by the Royal Observatory . The Thames-side palace was renamed the Palace of Placentia or Pleasaunce by Henry VI 's consort Margaret of Anjou after Humphrey's death. The palace
8520-515: The manor of Grenviz in the hundred of Grenviz as held by Bishop Odo of Bayeux ; his lands were seized by the crown in 1082. The name of the hundred was changed to Blackheath when the site of the hundred court was moved there in the 12th century. A royal palace, or hunting lodge, has existed here since before 1300, when Edward I is known to have made offerings at the chapel of the Virgin Mary. Subsequent monarchs were regular visitors, with Henry IV making his will here, and Henry V granting
8640-419: The men were tossed about as they worked and the brazier used to heat the metal for working was spilled out, burning the captain's son. The ship finally arrived in London on 18 October a week after Thermopylae , a total passage of 122 days. The captain and crew were commended for their performance and Henderson received a £50 bonus for his work. This was the closest Cutty Sark came to being first ship home but it
8760-509: The modern Prime Meridian . The palace was the principal residence of Henry VII whose sons Henry (later Henry VIII ) and Edmund Tudor were born here, and baptised in St Alphege's. Henry favoured Greenwich over nearby Eltham Palace , the former principal royal palace in south London, but which was not on the River Thames and so was less accessible. Henry extended Greenwich Palace and it became his principal London seat until Whitehall Palace
8880-678: The name "East Greenwich" include a township in Gloucester County, New Jersey , a hamlet in Washington County, New York , and a town in Kent County, Rhode Island . Greenwich, Connecticut was also named after Greenwich. Tumuli to the south-west of Flamsteed House, in Greenwich Park , are thought to be early Bronze Age barrows re-used by the Saxons in the 6th century as burial grounds. To
9000-401: The name of the manor of East Greenwich for describing the tenure (from the Latin verb teneo , hold) as that of free socage . New England charters provided that the grantees should hold their lands "as of his Majesty's manor of East Greenwich". This was in relation to the principle of land tenure under English law, that the ruling monarch (king or queen) was paramount lord of all the soil in
9120-483: The public; other buildings are used by University of Greenwich and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance . The town became a popular resort in the 18th century and many grand houses were built there, such as Vanbrugh Castle (1717) established on Maze Hill, next to the park. From the Georgian period estates of houses were constructed above the town centre. The maritime connections of Greenwich were celebrated in
9240-510: The remains of around 3000 sailors and officers, including those who fought in the Battle of Trafalgar and the Crimean War were removed from the hospital site in 1875 and reinterred in the Pleasaunce (named after the former Royal Palace of Placentia or Palace of Pleasaunce). Those buried in the Pleasaunce include: There are 19 Commonwealth naval personnel burials of the 1914–1918 war and two from
9360-460: The return journey took 122 days. In November 1877 the ship was anchored off Deal in the English Channel along with sixty other vessels, waiting out a great storm. The anchor failed to hold and Cutty Sark was blown through the ships, damaging two others before grounding on a mud bank. Fortunately she was pulled clear by the tug Macgregor before too much damage was caused and she was towed to
9480-466: The return trip. This was 14 days longer than Thermopylae and 27 days longer than achieved by the iron ship Hallowe'en a few months later. Captain W. E. Tiptaft assumed command in 1873 achieving 118 days on his first return trip, but after the ship had to travel 600 nautical miles (1,100 km) up the Yangtze River in search of a cargo. Steamships were now taking most of the tea. The following year
9600-511: The same group in 2003. The Roman road from London to Dover , Watling Street crossed the high ground to the south of Greenwich, through Blackheath. This followed the line of an earlier Celtic route from Canterbury to St Albans . As late as Henry V , Greenwich was only a fishing town, with a safe anchorage in the river. During the reign of Ethelred the Unready , the Danish fleet anchored in
9720-691: The same year, he became a trustee of the National Maritime Museum. Prince Philip was a trustee for 52 years until 2000, when he became its first patron . The Duke of Edinburgh was also a patron of the Cutty Sark (which was opened by the Queen in 1957) from 1952. During the Silver Jubilee of 1977, the Queen embarked at Greenwich for the Jubilee River Pageant. In 1987, she was aboard the P&;O ship Pacific Princess when it moored alongside
9840-587: The ship but Willis already possessed another ship, The Tweed , which he considered to have exceptional performance. The Tweed (originally Punjaub ) was a frigate designed by Oliver Lang based on the lines of an old French frigate, built in Bombay for the East India Company as a combination sail/paddle steamer. She and a sister ship were purchased by Willis, who promptly sold the second ship plus engines from The Tweed for more than he paid for both. The Tweed
9960-481: The ship during the voyage. At Greenhithe, Cutty Sark acted as an auxiliary vessel to HMS Worcester for sail training drill, but by 1950 she had become surplus to requirements. From February to October 1951 she was temporarily moved first for a refit and then to take part in the Festival of Britain at Deptford . On 30 January 1952, the 800-ton tanker MV Aqueity collided with Cutty Sark ' s bow in
10080-501: The ship. Work on the ship was suspended when Scott and Linton ran out of money to continue. Rather than simply liquidate the company, an arrangement was made for Denny's to take over the contract and complete the ship, which was finally launched on 22 November 1869 by Captain Moodie's wife. The ship was moved to Denny's yard to have her masts fitted, and then on 20 December towed downriver to Greenock to have her running rigging installed. In
10200-468: The ship. On the morning of 21 May 2007, Cutty Sark , which had been closed and partly dismantled for conservation work, caught fire, and burned for several hours before the London Fire Brigade could bring the fire under control. Initial reports indicated that the damage was extensive, with most of the wooden structure in the centre having been lost. In an interview the next day, Richard Doughty,
10320-517: The shore. Cutty Sark was anchored and towed to the Shadwell Basin where repairs were carried out by Green & Silley Weir Ltd. The damaged arm was recovered at Grays Thurrock and the figurehead was repaired. In 1953 Cutty Sark was given to the Cutty Sark Preservation Society and in 1954 she was moved to a custom-built dry dock at Greenwich. She was stripped of upper masts, yards, deck-houses and ballast to lighten her before being towed from
10440-458: The south, the land rises steeply, 100 feet (30 m) through Greenwich Park to the town of Blackheath . The higher areas consist of a sedimentary layer of gravelly soils, known as the Blackheath Beds , that spread through much of the south-east over a chalk outcrop—with sands, loam and seams of clay at the lower levels by the river. Greenwich is bordered by Deptford Creek and Deptford to
10560-473: The stern seas was a great danger, as they filled again with a bang that threatened to burst them into tatters. It was some trick rebending sails. I had a time on the fore topsail yard for two hours. The ship took a green sea over the stern, and it appeared as if there were just three sticks set in the ocean, as it swept the length of the deck. —A crew member writing of life on board Moore remained captain only for one round trip to China, taking 117 days for
10680-468: The support of Dowman's wife, artist Catharine Dowman ( née Courtauld ), heiress daughter of Sydney Courtauld , crepe and silk manufacturer. The rigging was restored to an approximation of the original arrangement and the ship was used as a cadet training ship. In 1924 she was used as committee boat for the regatta week in Fowey during that years regatta week as recalled to me by Mr. Arthur (Toby) West. As
10800-434: The tea trade from China to Britain. Speed was an advantage to vessels carrying a high-value, seasonal product, such as tea. Faster ships could obtain higher rates of freight (the price paid to transport the cargo), and tea merchants would use the names of fast-sailing ships that had carried their products in their advertising. Cutty Sark was ordered during a boom in building tea clippers in the period 1865–1869—something that
10920-598: The then Duke of Edinburgh , was instrumental in ensuring her preservation, when he set up the Cutty Sark Society in 1951. The Trust replaced the Society in 2000. She is a Grade I listed monument and was on the Buildings at Risk Register following the 2007 fire. The gallery beneath the ship holds the world's largest collection of ships' figureheads, donated to the Society by Sydney Cumbers in 1953. Cutty Sark station on
11040-509: The training ship Lady of Avenel . The ship returned to Lisbon, where she was sold to new owners and renamed Maria do Amparo (Mary of the Refuge, a name associated with the devotion of Our Lady of the Refuge; in Portuguese, " Nossa Senhora do Amparo "). Dowman persevered in his determination to buy the ship, which he did for £3,750 and she was returned to Falmouth harbour. The purchase was made with
11160-405: The weather over the whole period implied she had achieved over 370 nmi (690 km; 430 mi) some days. By comparison, Thermopylae ' s best recorded 24-hour distance was 358 nmi (663 km; 412 mi). On another occasion she recorded 3,457 nmi (6,402 km; 3,978 mi) in 11 days. Cutty Sark was considered to have the edge in a heavier wind, and Thermopylae in
11280-451: The west. Captain Wallace was sure in his element now. It was 'Stand by!' the whole time, not knowing whether the sticks would go, but the splendid rigging and equipment of sails in the Cutty Sark stood the strain. We lost two brand new topgallant sails and one lower fore topsail. A tremendous sea was running and needs must we carry on or be pooped. The partial becalming of the lower sails by
11400-551: The west; the residential area of Westcombe Park to the east; the River Thames to the north; and the A2 and Blackheath to the south. The Greenwich Peninsula , also known as North Greenwich, forms the main projection of the town (to the northeast of the town centre). This data was collected between 2005 and 2015 at the weather station in Greenwich: Historically, the record high is 100 °F (38 °C) on 9 August 1911. This
11520-507: The world, including coal, jute, castor oil and tea to Australia. In 1880 yards were shortened and the stun'sails removed. Also in 1880 an incident occurred on board during which the First Mate Sidney Smith killed seaman John Francis. Smith was allowed to leave the ship at Anjer by Captain Wallace, causing the crew to cease work in protest. Wallace continued the voyage with six apprentices and four tradesmen but became becalmed in
11640-566: Was 25 days faster than her nearest rival that year and heralded the start of a new career taking Australian wool to Britain in time for the January wool sales. From 1885 to 1893, Cutty Sark was run between England and New South Wales under the agency of the Sydney-based Dangar, Gedye & Co. In 1885 Richard Woodget was appointed captain on a salary of £186 per year (£23,729.80 in 2019 when adjusted for inflation) and continued to improve on
11760-407: Was 3-inch (7.6 cm) yellow pine. The keel , 16.5 in × 15 in (42 cm × 38 cm), had on either side a garboard strake, 11 in × 12 in (28 cm × 30 cm), and then 6-inch (150 mm) planking decreasing to 4.75 in (12.1 cm) at one-fifth the depth of the hold. Teak planking began at approximately the level of the bilge stringer. The hull
11880-469: Was 900 tons' weight (the total of ballast and cargo of 1,100 tons is consistent with the estimated deadweight cargo capacity of 1,135 tons at 20-foot draught). The largest tea cargo carried was 615 tons' weight. Conversely, a dense cargo allowed full use of the deadweight capacity: if loaded with coal, she would usually carry 1,100 tons. Broadly, the parts of the ship visible above the waterline were constructed from East India teak , while American rock elm
12000-404: Was Moodie's last trip as her captain before he transferred to steamships. He was replaced by Captain F. W. Moore. A little east of the longitude of the Cape we were favoured by a great fair wind blow, that tested all the resources of ship and crew. At the first spurt, heavy squalls came up from S.W., that threatened to take toll of our masts, but later it steadied down to a hurricane straight from
12120-567: Was accompanied by his mother Queen Mary, his wife Queen Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother ) and the Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth II .) Princess Elizabeth and her consort Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (who was ennobled Baron Greenwich on marriage in 1947) made their first public and official visit to Greenwich in 1948 to receive the Freedom of the Borough for Philip. In
12240-406: Was also becoming distorted because more weight was being carried on the keel than if the ship was afloat, when it would be evenly supported over the whole area below the waterline. An extensive conservation project was planned to overcome this, including repair and anti- corrosion painting of the framework and the addition of some additional steel ribs to add strength, and a new method of supporting
12360-506: Was also displayed Gipsy Moth IV , the 54 feet (16.5 m) yacht sailed by Sir Francis Chichester in his single-handed, 226-day circumnavigation of the globe during 1966–67. In 2004, Gipsy Moth IV was removed from Greenwich, and after restoration work completed a second circumnavigation in May 2007. On the riverside in front of the north-west corner of the hospital is an obelisk erected in memory of Arctic explorer Joseph René Bellot . Near
12480-534: Was at one time based on the time observations made at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, before being superseded by the closely related Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). While there is no longer a working astronomical observatory at Greenwich, a ball still drops daily to mark the exact moment of 1 p.m., and there is a museum of astronomical and navigational tools, particularly John Harrison 's marine chronometers . Cutty Sark Cutty Sark
12600-400: Was attributed to a substantial reduction in the import duties for tea. In 1868 the brand-new Aberdeen -built clipper, Thermopylae , set a record time of 61 days port to port on her maiden voyage from London to Melbourne and it was this design that Willis set out to better. It is uncertain how the hull shape for Cutty Sark was chosen. Willis chose Hercules Linton to design and build
12720-414: Was built in the 1530s. Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves at Greenwich, and both Mary (18 February 1516) and Elizabeth (7 September 1533) were born at Greenwich. His son Edward VI also died there at age 15. The palace of Placentia, in turn, became Elizabeth's favourite summer residence. Both she and her sister Mary used the palace extensively, and Elizabeth's Council planned
12840-511: Was completed and further enlarged by Edward IV , and in 1466 it was granted to his queen, Elizabeth . Edward IV had previously been given permission by the Pope to establish a Franciscan friary of Observant Friars in Greenwich, this was done in 1485, two years after his death; the first Observant House in England, it was located on land adjacent to the palace. After rejecting papal authority in 1534,
12960-493: Was covered by Muntz metal sheeting up to the 18-foot (5.5 m) depth mark, and all the external timbers were secured by Muntz metal bolts to the internal iron frame. The wrought-iron frame was an innovation first experimented with in shipbuilding in the 1840s, and was the standard building method for tea clippers by the middle of the 1860s. It consisted of frames (vertical), beams (horizontal) and cross bracing (diagonal members). The diagonally-braced iron frame made for
13080-555: Was damaged in a smaller fire. Cutty Sark whisky derives its name from the ship. An image of the clipper appears on the label, and the maker formerly sponsored the Cutty Sark Tall Ships Race . The ship also inspired the name of the Saunders Roe Cutty Sark flying boat. Cutty Sark was ordered by ship-owner John Willis, who operated a shipping company founded by his father. The company had several ships in
13200-535: Was demolished in 1937 to make way for a new Town Hall , now a listed building under new ownership and renamed Meridian House. Greenwich Station is at the northern apex of the Ashburnham Triangle, a residential estate developed by the Ashburnham family, mainly between 1830 and 1870, on land previously developed as market gardens. It is now a designated conservation area. The present Greenwich Theatre, further to
13320-480: Was destined for the tea trade, a seasonal trade of a high-value cargo from China to London. Though the "premium" or bonus paid to the ship that arrived with the first tea of the year was abandoned after the Great Tea Race of 1866 , faster ships could usually obtain a higher price for transporting their cargoes than others. Her first roundtrip voyage under captain George Moodie began 16 February 1870 from London with
13440-595: Was granted in recognition of the borough's historic links with the Royal Family , the location of the Prime Meridian and its being a UNESCO World Heritage Site . Greenwich is covered by the Greenwich West and Peninsula wards of the London Borough of Greenwich, which was formed in 1965 by merging the former Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich with that part of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich which lay south of
13560-462: Was impossible to obtain suitable materials to replace the masts so she was re-rigged over 18 months to a barquentine sail arrangement. In 1922 Ferreira was the last clipper operating anywhere in the world. Caught in a storm in the English Channel she put into Falmouth harbour where she was spotted by retired merchant navy captain Wilfred Dowman of Flushing , Cornwall, who was then operating
13680-440: Was possible for a sailing vessel to take a tug through the canal, this was difficult and expensive. Furthermore, sailing conditions in the northern Red Sea were unsuited to the design of a tea clipper, so they still had to sail around Africa. The ability of a steamer to make, for example, 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) continuously, versus the fastest clipper voyage averaging under 6.5 knots (12.0 km/h; 7.5 mph) over
13800-507: Was renamed Ferreira after the firm. Her crews referred to her as Pequena Camisola ( little shirt , a straight translation of the Scots cutty sark ). The ship traded various cargoes between Portugal, Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans, Mozambique, Angola, and Britain. In May 1916 she was dismasted off the Cape of Good Hope because of the rolling of the ship in bad weather and had to be towed into Table Bay off Cape Town . Because of World War I, it
13920-511: Was reopened to the public on 25 April 2012. Funders for the Cutty Sark conservation project include: the Heritage Lottery Fund , the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee , Sammy Ofer Foundation, Greenwich Council, Greater London Authority , The Stavros Niarchos Foundation , Berry Brothers & Rudd , Michael Edwards and Alisher Usmanov . On 19 October 2014 she
14040-463: Was signed on 1 February 1869 with the firm of Scott & Linton , which had only been formed in May 1868. Their shipyard was at Dumbarton on the River Leven on a site previously occupied by shipbuilders William Denny & Brothers . The contract required the ship to be completed within six months at a contracted price of £17 per ton and maximum size of 950 tons. This was a highly competitive price for an experimental, state-of-the-art vessel, and for
14160-408: Was the record for London until 2003, though it was disregarded due to non-standard instruments. Greenwich has an oceanic climate ( Köppen : Cfb ) with warm summers and cool winters. The Cutty Sark (a clipper ship) has been preserved in a dry dock by the river. A major fire in May 2007 destroyed a part of the ship, although much had already been removed for restoration. Nearby for many years
14280-462: Was then lengthened and operated as a fast sailing vessel, but was considered too big for the tea runs. Willis also commissioned two all-iron clippers with designs based upon The Tweed , Hallowe'en and Blackadder . Linton was taken to view The Tweed in dry dock . Willis considered that The Tweed ' s bow shape was responsible for her notable performance, and this form seems to have been adopted for Cutty Sark . Linton, however, felt that
14400-409: Was used for the ship's bottom. The stem , 15 in × 15 in (38 cm × 38 cm), and sternpost , 16.5 in × 15 in (42 cm × 38 cm), were of teak while the rudder was of English oak. The keel was replaced in the 1920s with one constructed from 15-inch (38 cm) pitch pine . The deck was made of 3.5-inch (8.9 cm) thick teak while the 'tween deck
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