Cutty Sark
Greenwich, London, SE10 9LW.
A tea and wool clipper.
1869 An agreement to build the Cutty Sark was signed by John 'Jock' Willis (also known as 'White Hat' Willis), a Scottish businessman, on 1 February 1869. The contracted completion date was six months later on 30 July 1869. Willis had been an experienced shipmaster in his father’s business and was by then also an experienced ship owner on his own account.
Scott and Linton contracted to build the ship for at a price of £17 per ton but if the tonnage exceeded 950 tons there would be no extra payment. The price of £17 per ton was extremely competitive, given their total lack of experience in building a composite clipper ship of anything close to this size and complexity. The completed vessel was to be delivered by 30 July 1869 with a penalty of £5 per day to be paid by Scott and Linton for every day of delay unless the delays were due to changes in specification or labour strikes. If Scott and Linton were unable to complete then Willis had the right to enter the yard and finish the work paying for materials out of the withheld stage payments.
Hercules Linton gave the task of designing the vessel to John Rennie; he was responsible for all the calculations connected with her sail area and stability. The sail plan he designed gave her 32,000 square feet of sail, capable of attaining a speed of over 17 knots, equivalent to a 3,000 hp engine.
Cash flow problems were such that all work in the Scott and Linton yard was suspended in the first week of September. Rather than apply for the Company to be liquidated, the creditors met and decided to complete some or all of the outstanding contracts and a financial agreement was reached with William Denny and Brothers to complete the ships.
1870 Cutty Sark’s first voyage was from London to Shanghai. She carried a general cargo, including wine, spirits and beer and manufactured goods. After successfully reaching China on 31 May, the ship was loaded with 1,305,812 lbs of tea. Following only 25 days in port in Shanghai, the ship sped back to London arriving on 13 October the same year.
With the arrival of steam ships and the opening of the Suez Canal, Cutty Sark had to find other goods to transport.
1877 She collected her last Chinese tea cargo. The ship then took various different cargoes around the world, from coal to Australian mail.
1880s This was the most successful period as a cargo ship - transporting wool from Australia led her to sail faster than every ship at the time.
1890s Cutty Sark began to make less money, as more steam ships moved into the wool trade. Eventually the ship was sold to a Portuguese firm; she was renamed Ferreira and was used as a cargo ship, transporting goods between Portugal and its empire.
After the WWI, retired Captain Wilfred Dowman bought the ship for £3,750 – even more than what she had been worth in 1895. The old name was reinstated in 1923, and Cutty Sark returned to British ownership. Dowman restored the ship to her state as a tea and wool clipper, an expensive and impressive feat. The ship was used as a training ship for cadets during these years.
When Dowman died his wife gifted it to the Thames Nautical Training College. Cutty Sark was used as a training ship in Greenhithe until the 1950s. The Cutty Sark Society was formed in order to save the ship, supported by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh.
1954 the ship was towed into Greenwich. Extensive restoration work followed, and Cutty Sark was finally opened to the public in 1957.
In 2007 a fire damaged three of Cutty Sark’s decks. Thanks to an outpouring of public support and the Heritage Lottery Fund, the ship was restored and reopened in 2012.
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Cutty Sark history