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76-465: The Topsails takes its name from the surrounding landscape which includes Main Topsail, Mizzen Topsail, Gaff Topsail and Fore Topsail which are geologically classified as monadnocks . The Topsails rise 61–122 metres (200–400 feet) above the general surface of the central plateau of Newfoundland. It is a barren land, rocky and windswept and in winter is renowned for its tremendous snowdrifts . The area

152-670: 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 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

228-680: 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

304-622: 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

380-493: 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

456-536: 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

532-546: A few seconds to close reef the upper topsail. Howe had the foot of the upper topsail closely attached to the lower topsail yard. In 1865 the British clipper Ariel introduced a gap there. Forbes first tried his rig in the topsail schooner Midas in 1844.The clipper Climax built in 1853 under the supervision of Howes was the first ship with Howe rig. Gaff topsails, like gaff rigs in general, may still be seen at tall ships gatherings. The gaff rig has been largely superseded by

608-413: A fore-and-aft rigged sail) ; a square rigged topsail is nearly always trapezoidal in shape, with the lengths of the upper yards being progressively smaller the higher they are on the mast. The bottom edge of the topsail, like that of other square rigged sails, is slightly concave which allows the rigging to connect to the mast. The principal exception to this trapezoidal rule is the raffee sail, which

684-491: 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

760-482: 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

836-476: 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 :

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912-495: 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

988-478: 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

1064-576: A prominent example). Such sails were still often referred to as a single "topsail", however. Competing versions of this double topsail were invented by Robert Bennet Forbes and Captain Frederic Howes . Although Forbes strove to defend his rig, the Howe rig dominated. In the Forbes rig, both topsail yards are fixed vertically. In the Howe rig, the upper topsail yard slides on the topmast so it can be lowered in

1140-412: 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

1216-592: A steady breeze even if the seas were rough. Because of their ability to drive a ship in lighter winds than the course sail below or any sail above, the topsail quickly became enormous and was soon difficult and dangerous to handle in strong winds. Sometime in the 1680s, reef-bands were introduced to tie up part of the sail, with topsails eventually getting four of these. In the mid 19th century topsails of merchant vessels were split into separate upper and lower topsails that could be managed independently and far more easily by significantly smaller crews (see Cutty Sark for

1292-423: 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

1368-415: 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

1444-400: 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

1520-488: Is a sail set above another sail; on square-rigged vessels further sails may be set above topsails. On a square rigged vessel, a topsail is a typically trapezoidal shaped sail rigged above the course sail and below the topgallant sail where carried, on any mast (i.e., a fully rigged ship would have a foremast topsail, a mainmast topsail, and a mizzen topsail). A full rigged ship will have either single or double (i.e., "split" upper and lower) topsails on all masts,

1596-493: Is a square rigged topsail that is triangular (such as is seen on the foremast of the ship Denis Sullivan , a topsail schooner ). A topsail which is fore-and-aft rigged is usually also triangular, but has its longest edge oriented vertically rather than horizontally as seen in the raffee sail. Although the early Romans used a sort of fore-and-aft rigged topsail on some vessels, this sail came into prominent use in Europe some time in

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1672-478: Is known for its spectacular scenery and in winter the huge snowdrifts that played havoc with the railway. 49°08′34″N 56°39′07″W  /  49.14278°N 56.65194°W  / 49.14278; -56.65194 This Newfoundland and Labrador location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Canadian ghost town -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Topsail A topsail ("tops'l")

1748-453: The Bermuda rig , which has no topsails. On a gaff-rigged sailing boat, topsails may take a few different forms: On rigs having multiple jibs or staysails of which at least one is set high, such as many late 19th and 20th Century racing cutters , the uppermost of these, set flying or on a topmast stay , is often called the jib topsail . Topsails ( Greek : sipharos ; Latin : siparum ) in

1824-527: 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

1900-853: 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

1976-632: 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

2052-498: 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

2128-417: The 15th century. Initially small and carried only on main and fore masts, they gradually increased in size and importance until by the middle of the 17th century and were the principal and largest sails of the ship, the first sails to be set and the last to be taken in. It was quite common for a ship to sail with topsails and jibs alone; the position of the topsails well above the sea ensured that they received

2204-656: 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 ,

2280-490: 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

2356-501: 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

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2432-487: 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

2508-437: 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

2584-485: 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

2660-495: 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,

2736-496: 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

2812-460: 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

2888-634: The form of an isosceles triangle set above the square mainsail were used in Roman navigation. Cutty Sark Cutty Sark 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

2964-531: 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,

3040-475: 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

3116-419: 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

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3192-535: The record time to Britain for ten years. Continuing improvements in steam technology early in the 1880s meant that steamships also came to dominate 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

3268-460: 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

3344-466: 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

3420-587: 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

3496-481: 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

3572-501: 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

3648-468: 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,

3724-517: 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

3800-402: The single or lower topsail being the second sail above the deck and the upper topsail where so rigged being the third. Although described as a "square" sail, a topsail on a full rigged ship refers not to the sail's shape but to it and its yard being rigged square (i.e., at a right angle) to the vessel's keel rather than in line with it (in which case it would be called a fore-and-aft rig or

3876-473: 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

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3952-468: 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

4028-434: 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

4104-598: 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

4180-456: 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

4256-405: 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

4332-503: 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

4408-507: 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

4484-566: 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

4560-407: 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

4636-469: 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

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4712-404: 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

4788-406: 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

4864-400: 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

4940-493: 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

5016-555: 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

5092-480: 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

5168-405: 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

5244-404: Was named after the short shirt of the fictional witch in Robert Burns ' poem Tam o' Shanter , first published in 1791. After 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

5320-440: 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

5396-507: 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

5472-581: Was restored and 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

5548-509: 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

5624-462: 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

5700-493: 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 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

5776-409: 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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