Description
Cutty Sark is a 19th-century tea clipper that you can walk around, and even under: a three-masted sailing ship preserved in a glass-skirted dry dock in Greenwich, in south-east London, by the Thames. She was one of the fastest ships of her day.
Her hull is raised about three meters above the dock floor, so visitors can walk beneath her and see the copper-colored metal sheathing that covered her bottom. The wooden hull sits on an iron frame, a construction that only two other ships from the 19th century still share.
Up above, the decks and the rigging show how a clipper worked. The ship was long and sharp, built for speed. Don't miss the figurehead of Nannie Dee, a white carved witch with long black hair and a grey horse's tail in her hand.
The name comes from a poem. In Robert Burns's "Tam o' Shanter", the young witch Nannie dances in a "cutty sark", a far too short shift, then chases Tam on his horse and pulls off its tail. The name promised speed.
Also worth the time is the collection of ships' figureheads in the gallery under the hull, the largest in the world. Dozens of carved figures, some of them lifelike, look out from the dim light.
Launched in Scotland in 1869, she arrived late for tea: that same year the Suez Canal opened, and steamships took over the route to China.
Her famous race came in 1872, against the rival Thermopylae. After two weeks she led by some 400 nautical miles, until a gale tore off her rudder. The carpenter forged a new one at sea in six days, and she reached London only a week behind.
Her glory came later, carrying Australian wool. Under Captain Richard Woodget she sailed south into the Roaring Forties for the strongest winds, and for ten years she was the fastest ship in the trade. In 1889 a passenger steamship logged her overtaking it in the night at 17 knots.
In 1954 she came to rest in Greenwich as a museum. A fire in 2007, during restoration, burned for hours and gutted her middle, but less than five percent of her original fabric was lost, since much of it had been removed beforehand. She reopened in 2012.
Her hull is raised about three meters above the dock floor, so visitors can walk beneath her and see the copper-colored metal sheathing that covered her bottom. The wooden hull sits on an iron frame, a construction that only two other ships from the 19th century still share.
Up above, the decks and the rigging show how a clipper worked. The ship was long and sharp, built for speed. Don't miss the figurehead of Nannie Dee, a white carved witch with long black hair and a grey horse's tail in her hand.
The name comes from a poem. In Robert Burns's "Tam o' Shanter", the young witch Nannie dances in a "cutty sark", a far too short shift, then chases Tam on his horse and pulls off its tail. The name promised speed.
Also worth the time is the collection of ships' figureheads in the gallery under the hull, the largest in the world. Dozens of carved figures, some of them lifelike, look out from the dim light.
Launched in Scotland in 1869, she arrived late for tea: that same year the Suez Canal opened, and steamships took over the route to China.
Her famous race came in 1872, against the rival Thermopylae. After two weeks she led by some 400 nautical miles, until a gale tore off her rudder. The carpenter forged a new one at sea in six days, and she reached London only a week behind.
Her glory came later, carrying Australian wool. Under Captain Richard Woodget she sailed south into the Roaring Forties for the strongest winds, and for ten years she was the fastest ship in the trade. In 1889 a passenger steamship logged her overtaking it in the night at 17 knots.
In 1954 she came to rest in Greenwich as a museum. A fire in 2007, during restoration, burned for hours and gutted her middle, but less than five percent of her original fabric was lost, since much of it had been removed beforehand. She reopened in 2012.