Posted on 04/24/2012 10:19:16 PM PDT by cutty
Five years after the Cutty Sark, once the pride of the British Empire, was ravaged by fire the ship has been restored to her former glory in time for a momentous year in Britain.
The 19th century sailing ship was to be re-opened on Wednesday by Queen Elizabeth II, weeks before the monarch celebrates her diamond jubilee in June.
Cutty Sark, which used to streak across the oceans carrying tea and wool, has come a long way since the flames burned through all three of her decks, turning her into an inferno early one morning in May 2007.
...
Jim Solomon, the chief engineer. "Projects like this don't come around very often."
Cutty Sark's new elevated position allows visitors to see the innovative design of the hull which enabled her to sail from Sydney to London in 1885 in a then-record 73 days, leaving the early steam ships in her wake.
"It is very important to keep this unique ship to represent the background to our wealth and prosperity," said Nash.
He compares the technological sophistication of Cutty Sark in its time to the impact made by the supersonic Concorde jet in its era.
"This ship is a symbol of British maritime power for many reasons: one is the aspect of trade, the other thing is the technology. At her time this was the most advanced technology that existed."
(Excerpt) Read more at france24.com ...
I saw this ship before she burned. Most impressive. Glad to see it was restorable.
73 days Sydney To London is amazing under sail
Either leg was always west to east.....every round trip a circumnavigation
The Horn and Roaring Forties never boring
This looks like a great restoration. I'm glad. (My opinion is that UK’s money is better spent on this, than some Obama-like make-work project in the “projects.” At the end of the day you have employed actual working craftsmen and have something worthwhile to show for the effort. Compare vs Solyndra.)
Oldplayer
Cutty Sark....... A beautiful, strong name.
yes
On retirement his hobby was breaking in wold horses.
Once on rounding Cape Horn with a mutinous crew...he held them off with a pistol and smashed the lifeboats with an axe.
Repro ID: D5927 Description: A transitional percussion revolver, c. 1850, owned by Captain Richard Woodget of the 'Cutty Sark'. Woodget took this revolver with him on all his voyages as captain of the 'Cutty Sark'. Once, when she was rounding Cape Horn in pursuit of a world speed record, they met such a bad storm that the crew wanted to abandon the clipper. Captain Woodget reputedly disabled the life boats with an axe and drew his revolver, forcing the crew to stay on board.
Creator: Lacey & Co
Date: c. 1850
Credit line: National Maritime Museum, London
wold = wild.
“I saw this ship before she burned.”
I first visited Greenwich and the Cutty Sark in 1979. In 1993 I visited Greenwich and the Cutty Sark on a trip to England with my father, who was then 90 yrs young. I have a brass key ring fob that I got on my ‘93 visit to the Maritime Museum. Impressive.
Gipsy Moth IV, the 54 foot yawl that Sir Francis Chischester sailed single handed around the world in 1967 was also there at Greenwich, dry-docked, alongside Cutty Sark. Sir Francis followed the clipper ship route, around the Horns, with a stop in Sydney.
She was named after Cutty Sark, the nickname of the witch Nannie Dee in Robert Burns' 1791 poem Tam o' Shanter. The ship's figurehead, carved by Robert Hellyer of Blackwall, shows Nannie Dee in a stark white carving of a bare-breasted woman with long black hair holding a grey horse's tail in her hand. In the poem she wore a linen sark (Scots: a short chemise or undergarment), that she had been given as a child, which explains why it was cutty, or in other words far too short. The erotic sight of her dancing in such a short undergarment caused Tam to cry out "Weel done, Cutty-sark", which subsequently became a well known catchphrase.
Crews were too large, though. The last working sail, up to the 1930s, were huge equal-masted schooners with no topsails. One “donkey steam engine” on deck was used with wire halyards to raise and lower all the gaff sails. Just a few men could handle a ship nearly 200’ long. Very few of these were left after WW2.
Leni
I was saddened to hear about the fire several years ago, its great that she has been restored, I have been through that ship as a teen when I lived in the UK for a short while.
Ah, yes! I remember Robert Manry’s adventure very well. That was just 3 years after my first becoming an Ohio resident. Lake Erie was a great training ground for Manry’s preparations for the trans-Atlantic crossings...it is the most shallow of the great lakes and can really dish it out in a storm.
I know...about 5 or 6 years after Manry’s adventure, I learned to sail...on Lake Erie. We sailed a Pearson Commander, a 26 foot, full keel boat...very forgiving, and great for Lake Erie. We often would head out when others were coming in because of weather brewing. They called my friend who owned the boat “Fearless Joe”. He had an American flag sewn to the mainsail and was easily recognized by those who knew him sailing out of Mentor Lagoons. When he bought the boat Joe did not know how to sail either...we learned together. Extraordinary times!
The Pearson Commander was one of Carl Alberg’s designs.
And Manry’s trans-Atlantic adventure was a couple years before Sir Francis Chichester’s round the world adventure on Gipsy Moth IV...
looks like Lisa Murkowski.
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