Page 8 - The Building Conservation Directory 2013

8 t h e b u i l d i n g c o n s e r vat i o n d i r e c t o r y 2 0 1 3 T w e n t i e t h a N N i v e r s a r y e d i t i o n
Cutty Sark
The UK is rich in feats of Victorian
architecture and engineering, from
Brunel’s graceful and elegant suspension
bridge at Bristol, to the vast arches of station
roofs like St Pancras, and from grand civic
architecture to palatial palm houses. However,
of the hundreds of clippers to be built in
the early 19th century, only two remain
with any degree of integrity; Cutty Sark has
recently been restored, while the other, City of
Adelaide is awaiting restoration.
The innovation of the Victorian engineers
who designed clippers was to combine state of
the art materials with a sleek hydro-dynamic
hull shape that could slip through the water
with least resistance. Cutty Sark’s hull was of
composite construction with rock elm planks
below the water line and teak above, fixed to
a wrought iron framework. This composite
construction gave her narrow hull far more
cargo space than would have been possible
with an all-timber construction, and the
rigidity to support three huge masts – the
tallest 152 feet. The hull was sheaved in Muntz
metal, a type of brass designed primarily as an
anti-fouling measure, reducing the growth of
weed and barnacles.
By the time it was launched in 1869,
propeller-driven steam-powered shipping was
already competing with sailing craft for the
global trade routes. Furthermore, the Suez
Canal was completed in the same year. As
the canal was unsuitable for sailing ships, it
was only steamers that benefitted from the
shortcut to eastern Africa, India and the Far
East. As a result this clipper belongs to the
final generation of great sailing ships designed
for cargo, and she was among the fastest ever
to be built.
History
The term ‘clipper’, which simply means a fast
ship, had previously been associated with the
schooners and brigs used by the Americans
to beat the British naval blockade during the
War of 1812. The term was adopted to describe
the fast, three-masted, narrow-hulled ships
of American merchants which emerged in
the 1830s and were quickly adopted by the
British too. With masts as tall as a 20 storey
building, each bearing a number of huge,
square sails and with triangular stay sails
between, clippers had the ability to carry their
cargo much faster than any previous sailing
ship. With good winds they could cover 250
miles a day.
Cutty Sark was commissioned by the
magnate Jock Willis in the 1860s and designed
by Hercules Linton of ship builders Scott and
Linton at Dumbarton, Scotland. However,
the firm had never built anything of this size
before and went bankrupt before the hull was
finished. Construction had to be completed by
neighbouring shipbuilders William Denny &
Brothers.
On 22nd November 1869, the ship was
launched at Dumbarton, towed to Greenock
for closing work on her mast and rigging,
and then sailed to London where she was
packed and loaded for Shanghai with barrels
of alcohol. Cutty Sark set sail on the 16th of
February 1870 on the first of eight voyages to
carry tea from China.
Cutty Sark never lived up to her
commissioner’s hopes of winning the race to
bring tea back to England, but in 1883 the ship
started transporting wool from Australia,
and it was here that she found her forte. Her
first trip from Gravesend to Newcastle NSW
was completed in just 83 days. This was 25
days faster than other vessels on that route at
that time. Then, in 1885 the ship, loaded with
wool, made a name for herself by covering the
distance from England to Sydney in 77 days,
and her return voyage took just 73 days. This
was the start of a ten-year reign in which
every merchant would know her name. On
the night of 25th July 1889 the ship overtook
the steam ship Britannia doing 17 knots to the
amazement of its crew. Robert Olivey, second
officer on the Britannia recorded the incident
in the ship’s log: ‘Sailing ship overhauled and
passed us!’
By 1895 steamships were taking over
every route and Cutty Sark’s owner, who was
now making little profit out of her, sold the
vessel to a Portuguese firm. In 1916, a year
after Portugal declared war on Germany, the
ship, which was now named The Ferreira,
was badly damaged in heavy seas. With her
masts broken, she was hauled into Table Bay,
South Africa and re-rigged as a barquentine
due to the high war-time price of masts.
In this arrangement only her foremast was
square-rigged while the other two were rigged
fore-and-aft.
In 1922 the ship was spotted by an
Englishman named Wilfred Dowman while
again being repaired, and a year later he
bought her for substantially more than she
was worth. The vessel was brought back to
Britain for restoration and she returned to her
original name.
Cutty Sark , 1872 by Frederick Tudgay (Photo: Cutty Sark Trust)
The hull prior to lifting in March 2011, supported
on steel props off the sides of the dry dock (Photo:
Tim Keeler Photography)