Cutty Sark Clipper Ship

The Cutty Sark is Closed to the Public:

The Cutty Sark Trust is appealing for funds to help repair the fire damage and complete the restoration.

Cutty Sark was built for John Willis to be the fastest clipper on the China tea route. Her design was taken from one of his other ships "The Tweed", with special modifications to make her handle better and sail faster. John Willis insisted that the best materials were used in building the ship, but would only pay £17.00 per ton. This bankrupted the firm of Scott & Linton, the original builders, and the work was completed by William Denny & Brothers.

Cutty Sark was launched at Dumbarton on the Clyde on Monday 22nd November 1869. She was recorded to have reached speeds of 17 and a half knots, her best day's run is recorded at 363 miles, averaging 15 knots, and on one occasion she sailed 2,164 miles in six days and on another 3457 in eleven days.

She worked the China tea routes from 1870 until 1877, then for the next five years she carried general cargo. In 1885 she began the Australian wool trade, and it was on this hard route that she proved she was the fastest ship of her time, with a passage from Newcastle in New South Wales to Deal in Kent in only 82 days. In 1895 she was sold to the Portuguese and twenty seven years later, in Falmouth, was seen and purchased by Captain Wilfred Dowman, returning again to the British flag.

After some restoration, she was donated to HMS Worcester as a training vessel for cadets at Greenhithe, and in 1953 was handed over as a gift to the Cutty Sark Preservation Society. The Preservation Society began major restoration works, and sited her in a dry-dock designed and built specially to receive her. In June 1957 she was formally opened to members of the public by HM The Queen.