THE CUTTY SARK

Evening Post, Volume 97, Issue 97, 21 October 1933, Page 22

THE CUTTY SARK

"AS GOOD AS NEW-

Proclaimed by her proud owner, Captain W. H. DoTCmaii, -to be-"as good as new," the famous clipper Cutty Sark, fastest and most beautiful.of the ships that sailed to Australia sixty years ago and moje, lies today in Falmouth Harbour, writes a London correspondent. As she rides gracefully at anchor, the sun sparkles on her hull and spars and her spick and span appearance fills the soul of tho onlooker with admiration. She is visited- riy thousands "from all parts of tke;Worldj;;Tvli.o.-haye--heard of.

her exploits, and she gives the uncanny impression of a .ship .straining-for the open sea, where the breezes blow across the world. ■ The ambition of her skipper, Captain Dowman, is to finance yet another voyage for her. He would like nothing better than to see her pushing her nose through the roaring forties, as she did long ago, to reach Melbourne in under seventy days. For the moment, -however, this is but a . dream. . The Cutty-Snrk is not for sale, for, as her owner fondly explains, "money would not buy her." He himself pur--1 chased her from tho Portuguese for . close on £4000, and has spent £22,000 on' keeping her taut and trim during the past eleven years. His sense of proprietorship is, therefore, almost as : strong as his affection. It could not : be expected of him that he would part with a craft that has meant so much to ! him, oven "that he should dispose of her to the National Trust as a. lasting meI morial to tho great days of sail. . She is too precious ,a thing, too intimate' a [ beauty, for•■ sacrilicc. . . It will solac.e those' who remember h er — ai ,d they must be only a handful —that she it. kept in perfect condition ■ and in a^l essentials ready for sea. Her ■ hull, is painted a smart black and white; i her masts are white and. taper.to the , sky; her trimmed yards are.black with white tips. Complete to new sails, all • stowed in' their lockers ready to bo bent at any moment, she is an object of loveliness and efficiency, despite her 1 64 years of energetic life. The Cutty Sark would undoubtedly 1 go easting tomorrow if it were not for

pounds, shillings, and pence. And there is not only the question of cost — ami that is a matter of thousands—but of picking a crew. Real sailormen of the old typo are not to be found in the ports of modern England, nor are they born any longer. They exist in small numbers in "foreign parts," but who would wish to see this British clipper once again in the hands of foreigners'? In the days of her ignominy she suffered enough from that cause, and so Captain Dowman is determined that if she cannot "sail British" it is better that she dods not sail at all. In any case, she has been willed to his son, who may well be described as the proudest boy in England, although England, for her part, has good reason to be proud of his father.