Whats so special about the Cutty Sark?
“There’s been a fire,” a policewoman explained yesterday as she diverted drivers away from Greenwich. Richard Doughty, the Cutty Sark Trust chief executive, was told by Radio 4 that the ship – a London landmark – had burned down. He was almost in tears. Old sailing ships inspire passion like nothing else. But what’s so special about this one? Launched in 1869, Cutty Sark was the fastest, sleekest ship of its time. Its cleverly designed hull meant it could be pushed harder than anything before. And, although its original function as a tea clipper sailing to China and back was made redundant by steamships and the Suez canal, it enjoyed a decade of success as the fastest boat on the wool run between Sydney and London. Designed to last only 30 years, the ship was over 50 when she was rescued and restored by a Cornish sailor, Captain Wilfred Dowman, in 1922. He had never forgotten the sight of it as it sliced past him at full sail in 1894. Eventually the ship came to rest in Greenwich, wher
