Conservation Plan 3 Significance.pdf - National Maritime Museum

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Cutty Sark Conservation Plan vol. 3: Significance 2.3. The Career of Cutty Sark Building of Cutty Sark 1868—1869 14 of 107 The above table illustrates the relative sizes of clippers and their ‘successors’, the four-masted barques. The voyages times are indicative that clippers were significantly faster, but it is notoriously difficult to compare individual voyages and it should not be interpreted as an attempt at a ‘league table’. It is worth noting that Cutty Sark carried 32,000 ft 2 of canvas. Relative to her size, this was a greater sail area than carried by any other clipper. Cutty Sark was commissioned by London-based ship owner John ‘Jock’ Willis, son of the founder of J. Willis & Son. Willis already had three ships in the China tea trade but none were true clippers. It is believed that Willis commissioned Cutty Sark specifically to compete with Thermopylae (launched 1868 by Walter Hood of Aberdeen), the fastest ship of the day. Cutty Sark was designed and built by Messrs. Scott & Linton of Dumbarton, who had submitted the lowest tender. Scott & Linton built one other clipper — Inverishie — but not for the tea trade. This vessel was lost in the early 1870s. Hercules Linton, who is specifically credited with Cutty Sark’s design, had been apprenticed to Halls of Aberdeen, pioneers in the development of the clipper.
Trading under British Flag 1870—1895 Cutty Sark Conservation Plan vol.3: Significance Scott & Linton went into bankruptcy before the ship was completed and the works were finished by William Denny & Brothers at Dumbarton, as had been specified in the contract in such an event. This was the only clipper ship Dennys ever built. Cutty Sark was launched on 22 November 1869 and left the Clyde to collect her first cargo from London on 13 January 1870. Her first voyage from London to Shanghai took just 98 days. Her cargo included large amounts of wine, spirits and beer. She returned with 1.3 million lbs of tea. On outward voyages her cargoes were ‘general’ – one voyage took coal to Singapore, another took scrap iron to Shanghai. She failed to beat Thermopylae: on her third voyage she was 400 miles ahead when her rudder broke, forcing emergency repairs and causing her to arrive in London a week after her rival. The Suez Canal had opened a week before her launch, which gave steamers a competitive advantage. Although initially consumers believed that tea carried in the iron-hulled steamers was not as pleasing on the palate as that brought home in a sailing ship, steamers quickly came to dominate the tea trade. Cutty Sark carried her last tea cargo in 1877. She ended the decade transporting jute from Manila to New York and traded as a general cargo vessel until 1883. 15 of 107
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Conservation Plan 3 Significance.pdf - National Maritime Museum

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