Conservation Plan 3 Significance.pdf - National Maritime Museum

Cutty Sark Conservation Plan vol. 3: Significance
Training Ship on the
Thames
1938 — 1953
18 of 107
Importantly, she was open to the public during this time — several
years before HMS Victory and USS Constitution became publicly
accessible — and is thus the longest surviving exhibition ship in the
world. Her image was used to market Falmouth as a tourist
destination, appearing on many postcard views of the town. The
oral history project has discovered that among her visitors were King
George V, the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII), Amy Johnson, and
the socialite Dai Llewellyn. Although actual visitor numbers are not
know, they were sufficient to provide local boatmen with a living,
ferrying tourists between ship and shore. Cutty Sark was also used at
this time for events such as tea dances, as a flagship for regattas,
and aided the local dockyards during the Depression through the
restoration and maintenance work she required. Unsurprisingly, she
was apparently greatly missed by the people of Falmouth when she
left the harbour in 1938.
On Dowman’s death in 1937 Cutty Sark was offered by his widow to
the London branch of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights for use
as their headquarters ship. The ship was surveyed, and plans drawn up