Cutty Sark, Greenwich
The last tea clipper – 1869’s greyhound of the China run lifted in glass at Greenwich, her witch figurehead chasing still.
At a glance
- Type
- Museum ship (within Maritime Greenwich UNESCO)
- Period
- 1869; museum 1957; re-display 2012
- Style
- Composite clipper (teak on iron)
- Location
- Greenwich, London, UK
- Coordinates
- 51.4826, -0.0096
- Name
- Burns’ Tam o’ Shanter witch’s short shirt
Overview
Cutty Sark launched 1869 for the tea races the Suez Canal’s same-year opening doomed – so she made legend on wool instead, Sydney to London’s record runs under captain Woodget’s storming canvas. The last surviving tea clipper rests at Greenwich since 1954, since 2012 raised three metres so visitors walk beneath her gilded hull lines – speed’s sculpture explained from below.
History
Her witch figurehead (Burns’ Nannie, horse-tail in hand) chased crews’ yarns; Portuguese decades as Ferreira preceded rescue and naming-rights immortality via the whisky. Fires in 2007 and 2014 tested conservation – the 2007 blaze sparing her because half the fabric sat removed in storage, restoration’s luck.
Architecture and Design
Composite build – teak skin on wrought-iron frames – gave strength aloft and capacity below; the raised display’s glass sea lets the run of her lines read entire. Figureheads’ collection crowds the dry berth beneath.
Cultural significance
Cutty Sark is sail’s swan song made monument within Maritime Greenwich’s UNESCO ensemble – empire’s logistics, the sea’s romance, and conservation drama’s case files in one hull.
Visiting today
Open daily; combine the Observatory’s meridian and the Queen’s House along the park’s axis. Rig climbs run seasonal for the bold.
Getting there
Cutty Sark DLR station exits beside the bow; Thames Clippers call at Greenwich pier.
Sources and resources
Find it on the map
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