Cutty Sark - Construction and Etymology

Construction and Etymology

The Cutty Sark was ordered by John "Jock" "White Hat" Willis who operated a shipping company founded by his father. The company had a fleet of clippers and regularly took part in the tea trade from China to Britain. Speed is a clear advantage to a merchant ship, but it also created prestige for the owners: the tea race was widely reported in newspapers and had become a national sporting event with money bet on the winning ship. In earlier years Willis had commanded his father's ships at a time American designed ships were the fastest on the tea trade, and then had owned British designed ships amongst the best available in the world, but had never won the tea race. In 1868 the brand new Aberdeen built clipper Thermopylae set a record time of 61 days port to port on her maiden voyage from London to Melbourne and it was this design which Willis set out to better.

There is uncertainty as to how the exact choice of hull shape was arrived at. Willis chose Hercules Linton to design and build the ship but Willis already possessed another ship, The Tweed which he considered to have exceptional performance. The Tweed (originally Punjaub) was a frigate designed by Oliver Lang based on the lines of an old French frigate, built in Bombay for the East India company as a combination sail/paddle steamer. She and a sister ship were purchased by Willis, who promptly sold the second ship plus engines from The Tweed for more than he paid for both. The Tweed was now lengthened and operated as a fast sailing vessel, but was considered too big for the tea runs. Willis also commissioned two all iron clippers with designs based upon Tweed, Hallowe'en and Blackadder. Linton was taken to view the ship in dry dock.

In particular, Willis considered that the bow shape of The Tweed was responsible for its notable performance, and this seems to have been adopted for Cutty Sark. Linton, however, felt that the stern was too barrell shaped and gave Cutty Sark a squarer stern with less tumblehome. The broader stern increased the buoyancy of the rear of the ship, making it lift more in heavy seas so it was less likely waves would break over the stern, and over the helmsman at the wheel. The square bilge was carried forward through the centre of the ship. In the matter of masts Cutty sark also followed the design of The Tweed, with similar good rake and with the foremast on both ships being placed further back than was usual.

A contract for Cutty Sark's construction was signed 1 February 1869 with the firm of Scott & Linton, which had only been formed in May 1868. Their shipyard was at Dumbarton on the River Leven on a site previously occupied by shipbuilders William Denny & Brothers. The contract required the ship to be completed within six months at a contracted price of £17 per ton and maximum weight of 950 tons. This was a very competitive price for an experimental, state of the art ship, for a customer requiring the highest standards. Payment would be made in seven installments as the ship progressed, but with a penalty of £5 for every day the ship was late. The ship was to be built to Lloyd's A1 standard and her construction was supervised on behalf of Willis by captain George Moodie, who would command her when completed. Construction delays occurred when the Lloyd's inspectors required additional strengthening in the ship.

Work on the ship was suspended when Scott and Linton ran out of money to pay for further work. Rather than simply liquidate the company, an arrangement was made for Denny's to take over the contract and complete the ship, which was finally launched on 22 November 1869 by Captain Moody's wife. The ship was moved to Denny's yard to have her masts fitted, and then on 20 December towed downriver to Greenock to have her running rigging installed. In the event, completing the ship meant the company's creditors were owed even more money than when work had first been halted.

Broadly, the parts of the ship visible above the waterline were constructed from East India teak, while American rock elm was used for the ships bottom. The keel (16.5x15 inches) had on either side a garboard strake (11x12 inches) and then 6 inch planking reducing to 4.75 inches at 1/5 the depth of the hold. Teak planking began at approximately the level of the bilge stringer. All the external timbers were secured by Muntz metal (brass) bolts to the internal iron frame and the hull covered by Muntz sheeting up to the 18 foot depth mark. The stem (15x15 inches) and sternpost (16.5x15 inches) were of teak while the rudder was English Oak. The keel was replaced in the 1920s with one constructed from 15 inches (38 cm) pitch pine. The deck was made of 3.5 inch thick teak while the 'tween deck was 3 inch yellow pine. Her length was 212 feet 5 inches (64.74 m) with a draft of 21 feet (6.40 m) and a deadweight of 921 tons.

A speck on the horizon

One day we sighted a vessel, a mere speck on the horizon, astern of us, and the way she came into view it was evident she was travelling much faster than ourselves. ' Bringing the wind up with her ' was remarked on board, and that seemed the only feasible conclusion to arrive at and account for the manner in which she overhauled us. In a few hours she was alongside us, and proved to be the famous British clipper Cutty Sark, one of the fastest ships afloat. She passed us going two feet to our one, and in a short time was hull down ahead of us."

Wool clipper crewman, 1879

The maximum logged speed for Cutty sark was 17.5 knots. The speed of a sailing ship is not so straightforward as a steam ship, as winds vary and a ship must tack when heading into the wind, both requiring the crew to make constant adjustments to sails, so her speed also depended on the skill of her captain and crew. Her greatest recorded distance in 24 hours was 363 nautical miles (NM) (averaging 15 knots), although she recorded 2163 miles in six days, which given the weather over the whole period implied she had achieved over 370 NM some days. By comparison, Thermopylae's best recorded 24 hour distance was 358 NM. Cutty Sark was considered to have the edge in a heavier wind, and Thermopylae in a lighter one.

The ship was named after Cutty Sark, the nickname of the witch Nannie Dee in Robert Burns' 1791 poem Tam o' Shanter. The ship's figurehead, the original 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. Originally carvings by Hellyer of the other scantily clad witches followed behind the figurehead along the bow, but these were removed by Willis in deference to 'good taste'. Tam O'Shanter riding Meg was to be seen along the ship's quarter. The motto, Where there's a Willis away, was inscribed along the taffrail. The Tweed, which acted as a model for much of the ship which followed her, had a figurehead depicting Tam o'Shanter.