Scott and Linton, shipbuilders of Dunbarton
1868 Company formed by William Dundas Scott-Moncrieff and Hercules Linton
The Cutty Sark was commissioned by John Willis, a Scots born businessman, in the late 1860s. Scott and Linton contracted to build the Cutty Sark for a price of £17 per ton, a very low price even in those days.
1869 Scott and Linton were bankrupted due to the low contract price but not before they had completed and launched the hull and named it Cutty Sark, a name derived from the Robert Burns poem 'Tam O'Shanter' meaning 'short shirt'.
The hull was towed across the river Leven to William Denny and Brothers for fitting out; she was rigged ready to sail in only 12 weeks. Cutty Sark set sail from London on her maiden voyage to Shanghai on the 16th February 1870 under the command of Captain George Moodie.