Onboard the Cutty Sark in Greenwich – Tales from the Sea

Onboard the Cutty Sark ship

The Cutty Sark, once the fastest clipper ship ever built, traversed trade routes and wild seas. Now in retirement, she’s lived a good life, but a challenging one.

She was a lean, sharp-nosed predator of the sea – chasing the tea harvest from China back to London, racing other clippers to be the first to dock and cash in.

Nowadays the Cutty Sark has transformed into a museum. She is one of London’s most treasured attractions and this year celebrates turning 155 years old. To commemorate the occasion, I hopped onboard to learn all about her illustrious adventures.

As I climbed up on deck, I tried to envision what life may have been like onboard. I grabbed the steering wheel with my hands and stared out towards the Thames. Captain Shing had arrived in town.

I was feeling rather confident in my abilities until another visitor took one look at me, and said whilst laughing, “You’re steering the wheel the wrong way round”.

In reality, the only way of being promoted to captain would be in my dreams.

So with my glittering future as a skipper in tatters, I took myself off to the area below deck to learn more about this incredible feat of engineering.

Below are some interesting facts and figures I discovered about the Cutty Sark and her long life as a famous clipper ship.

She’s a 155 years old

The Cutty Sark was built in 1869 in Dumbarton, Scotland, for John “Jock” Willis, a successful tea merchant. Her name? From a Robert Burns poem – a witch in a short nightgown. Cheeky, Scottish, and just a little wild. She was engineered to do one thing really, really well: go fast.

Her maiden voyage began on the 16 February 1870, bound for Shanghai with a cargo of wine, spirits and beer. She came back, just over six months later, carrying 593,000 kg of tea, docking into London on 13 October 1870. The trip from a success.

She’s a clipper, but what is a clipper exactly?

The clipper is a type of early sailing ship that was first used in the United States after the War of 1812. The term “clipper” derives from the word “clip”, meaning to move swiftly. As time wore on, the word simply applied to any fast sailing ship. Clippers were basically merchant vessels famous for their speed.

They could travel great distances in less time. Speed was their claim to fame. In the age of empires and discovery, speed was everything. Speed meant victory. Plus, since clippers transported mostly valuable cargo, the quicker it left and returned, the higher the profits.

A ship that could sail 150 miles per day was considered a good ship for transportation at that time. Impressively, the Cutty Sark’s fastest recorded distance in 24 hours was 418 miles. This made her the fastest clipper in the world during her time at sea.

Against all odds, she’s the world’s last surviving tea clipper

Things haven’t always been, excuse the pun, plain sailing for the Cutty Sark. She’s had her fair share of trouble both on and off the water.

She’s had a rough retirement. In 2007, during a massive restoration project, she caught fire – badly. Parts of her original timbers were damaged. The good news? Much of her hull had already been removed for conservation.

Quite literally, she’s survived storms, war, neglect, obsolescence and fire. Following an extensive restoration project, Cutty Sark re-opened in 2012.

Tea trade from China to Britain

It’s no secret that us Brits love tea.

It was during the Victorian era that tea became very popular. In fact, it became so widely liked that ale was replaced as the most favourite of all beverages. Tea reigned supreme.

The drinking of tea led to the birth of a thing beyond a mere habit or addiction. It became a culture. Tea rooms mushroomed up all over the place. Tea was in demand and people paid big money for it.

The Victorians needed the Cutty Sark – the fastest clipper that money could buy – to satisfy their addiction to tea. The Cutty Sark made eight tea treks from London to China and back. Each journey collected up 600,000 kg of leaves. In total she carried almost 4.5 million kilograms of tea between 1870 and 1877. Now that’s a lot of weight for an old girl to carry!

To the moon and back

By the end of her 52-year career, the Cutty Sark had travelled the equivalent distance of two and a half voyages to the moon and back, carrying cargos including tea, wool, and furniture. Impressive. Miss Cutty worked hard!

Pushed out by newer technology

The clipper began facing tough competition from steamships. They were less dependent on wind patterns so new trade routes opened up. Eventually, this caused the demise of the Cutty Sark – she was no longer profitable.

Steamships were in, and clippers were out. This shift in technology ushered in the first wave of trade globalisation (1870–1913). They contributed significantly to an increase in international trade that was unprecedented in human history.

The Cutty Sark was sold in 1885 to the Portuguese firm Joaquim Antunes Ferreira. They renamed her Ferreira and used her for transport between Portugal and the Americas. Then in 1922, she was purchased by a sea captain by the name of Wilfred Dowman who used her as a training ship.

Fast forward to 1954, and she docked at her permanent home in Greenwich. A fitting location beside her two friends: the National Maritime Museum and the Old Royal Naval College.

Visiting the Cutty Sark in Greenwich

The Cutty Sark is the perfect place to go for families, and anyone with a good dose of curiosity. The kids I saw during my visit looked to be having the time of their lives, particularly up on the deck.

I began my journey onboard by watching a short history of the ship in its mini cinema. The film gives a simple overview of the Cutty Sark’s life at sea to present day. It doesn’t last too long which suited me fine because I was itching to explore.

You will find several decks each fitted with interactive displays, letters, memorabilia and artwork. There’s even a seat that you can sit on that moves up and down to replicate what it may have been like onboard under stormy weather. I can’t imagine I would have faired very well. I suffer from sea-sickness in just the tamest of waters.

There are also a number of objects that you can touch and smell from the original cargo including tea, whisky and food samples. As I mentioned earlier, my favourite area to visit is the top deck. You can play around with the Captain’s wheel, explore the sleeping quarter, and marvel at the mast.

Fun trivia: the mast is taller that Nelson’s column.

Cutty Sark: facts & figures

• 280 feet long
• Beam measurement 36 feet
• Moulded depth 22.5 feet
• Gross weight: 963 tons (978.5 tonnes)
• Main mast height from the deck: 152 feet

Don’t forget to walk under her

Once you step inside the visitor centre, you realise that the light-filled modern structure allows you to go completely underneath the ship. See up-close the remarkable metal hull, made to let the ship pass through the water with minimal resistance.

There is a cafe under the ship’s stern, and you can walk the entire length of the vessel to a display of historic ship’s figureheads at the bow.

How to visit the Cutty Sark

Cutty Sark is open daily from 10am to 5pm. You can book your tickets and find out more information here.

In Greenwich you can explore many other attractions including, the National Maritime Museum, Queen’s House, Royal Observatory, and the Royal Park of Greenwich – it’s no surprise why Greenwich is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For more ideas, take a look at my list of Best 21 Things to do in Greenwich.

This is a sponsored post, and I was a guest of Cutty Sark. As always, all views and opinions are my own.