What is the Cutty Sark?

The Cutty Sark was built in Scotland in 1869, making it over 150 years old. It made its first voyage from London to Shanghai on 15 February 1870 and returned home on 13 October 1870 with 600 tonnes of tea. Victorians loved their tea, and it was fashionable to drink the freshest tea available. Ship crews competed with each other to be the fastest to bring supplies back to Britain.

The Cutty Sark made eight successful trips to China, carrying goods like beer, toys and tobacco, and returning with tea. But powerful steam ships soon took over the trade. From 1883, the Cutty Sark was used to trade wool with Australia. In the 1890s, it was sold to a Portuguese shipping firm and used to transport different cargoes around the Portuguese empire.

The Cutty Sark had seven captains. George Moodie, the first captain, oversaw the ship’s construction. One captain died from an outbreak of dysentery in Shanghai. Another died by suicide at sea. The most famous – and fearless – captain was Richard Woodget. He pushed the ship’s speeds to its limit and broke the record for the fastest voyage back from Australia: 73 days.

It’s an old Scottish term meaning ‘short shirt’ or ‘short nightdress’. It comes from the great Scottish poet Robert Burns’ 1790 poem Tam o’Shanter, in which he describes a scantily dressed witch wearing a “cutty sark”. The Portuguese renamed the ship Ferreira. In 1922, retired sea captain Wilfred Dowman spotted Ferreira sheltering in Cornwall in need of repairs. He bought it and gave it back its original name.

The ship has been in a specially made dry dock in Greenwich since 1954. After Dowman bought and fixed it back up, the Cutty Sark was used for training cadets. But it fell into disrepair after the Second World War (1939–1945). In the 1950s, the Cutty Sark Preservation Society moved it to Greenwich where it was restored and reopened to the public as a museum ship. It’s been there ever since.

In 2007, a fire caused devastating damage on all three decks of the ship while it was undergoing conservation work. The cause? An industrial vacuum cleaner that had been left on for two days. Luckily, the ship’s masts, saloon, deckhouses and other material had been previously moved into storage. The fire caused £10 million of damage, but the Cutty Sark was restored and reopened in time for the London 2012 Olympics.