FAMOUS CLIPPER SHIPS

Evening Star, Issue 16629, 11 January 1918, Page 4

FAMOUS CLIPPER SHIPS

It is almost uncanny to learn that th< Cutty Sark, which 50 years ago was one of the most famous clipper ships in cur mercantile marine, is still afloat and doing good work (writes tlje Scottish correspondent of the ‘ Overland China Mail ’). In Portuguese ownership and named tho Ferreira,, she is engaged iu trade along the west coast of Africa. Built at Dumbarton on the Clyde in 1869 for the China tea trade, she was a very fast ship, and as late as 1892 she covered 353 knots in 24 hours. Three years before that she sailed 7,678 knots in 30 days. The Cutty Sark was, in fact, the only vessel that could dispute the claim of the Thermopylae, built at Aberdeen, to be the fastest sailing ship in the world. The Thermopylai was latterly owned by the Portuguese navy, and when no longer suited for their needs she was decorated: with flags, towed out to sea with a naval escort, and sunk with her colors flying. Captain Moodie, under whom the Cutty Sark made its most celebrated run, is also still to the fore, hale and hearty, spending the late autumn of his life far from the “ beached verge of the salt sea” in the old-fashioned village of Aiichterrr.uchty. A native of West Wemyss, in Fife, his first experiences of the sea were on board small ships owned by Provost Swan, Kirkcaldy—the provost who was the intimate friend of Thomas Carlyle. Afterwards Captain Moodie entered the service of Messrs John Willis and Son, and for many years he captained Willis liners. When the firm decided to challenge the China greyhounds they naturally gave the command of their chosen vessel to a tried servant—and with fhe Cutty Sark in the water- old Mr John Willis and Captain Moodie made history, both in the China Sea and the Indian Ocean. The Gutty Sark’s first voyage was from London to Shanghai, and daptain Moodie when inter viewed, gave this account of the voyage :—“ We reached the Equator in 17 days. She behaved grandly; I know I had something special under' my feet. The voyage to Shanghai took days. There was a famine in China, and wo hod to run with a cargo of rice from Bangkok to Hongkong. The Chinese were more anxious for the rice than we were f for their tea. Wo took on 3,100 tons of tea at Shanghai, and our voyage homewas made in splendid time.” At that time the Aberdeen-built clipper Thermopylae was the champion of the sea, having knocked out the Clyde clippers just as the British defeated the Baltimore ships in an earlier decade. And It was 'this vessel, which was about the same dimensions as tho Cutty Sark, that Captain Moodie had to beat. The Thormopylro loft Shanghai before the Cutty Sark. “ I sighted her .twice on the China Sea.*’ said Captain Moodie with a gleam in bis eye. “ There was a south-west gale right in our teeth,, but the Cutty .Sark was behaving like a daisy. Close-hauled, we were making 15 knots easy, and we passed steamers hand over hand. I was 380 miles ahead of the Thermopylae when I lost my rudder. I lost a topmast some time before. For a week I worked getting a jury rudder fitted up. Although we had only that jury rudder, we beat Therm °Pyl» two days in the run from the Equator to London. What crowd* came to see us when we reached the Thames! The weather during the voyage was terrible, and my nerves were so shaken that I did not go another trip with the Cutty Sark.” Experts are of opinion that the Thermopylre was the faster ship. * But it is Captain Moodie’s opinion that the Cutty Sark could and did beat her in a good breeze. In tho doldrums the Thermopylae made headway, but in the captain’s words, ‘‘that’s no tost of a ship.” He was delighted to learn that the Cutty Sark is still above watSr. “ A finer ship,” he said, “never sailed the seas.”