THE CUTTY SARK

Evening Star, Issue 22720, 6 August 1937, Page 12

THE CUTTY SARK

NOT FOR SYDNEY LONG VOYAGE " TOO RISKY " The famous clipper ship Cutty Sark ™ n °t be brought to Sydney for the 150th anniversary celebrations next year. The present owner, Mrs Catherine Dowman, after considering the proposal, has advised the Historical Committee for the celebrations that the vessel is not in a condition to venture upon a voyage so long and risky, even if it were possible to fit her out. Mr R. A. Malloch, managing director of Dangs r , Gedye, and Malloch Ltd., who is a member of the committee, wrote to Mrs Dowman in January suggesting that the presence of the Cutty Sark in Sydney would be a feature of great interest during the celebrations. His idea was that the ship might be equipped as a show-boat for certain British products, and thus, apart from her intrinsic importance, serve as a powerful link in Empire associations. He recalled that Messrs Dangar, Gedye, and Co. Ltd. had acted as agents for the Cutty Sark and other wool clippers in the ’eighties. Mrs Dowman replied to the effect that since the death of her husband. Captain Dowman, she had a sense of “ added responsibility ” as to the fate of the old ship, and much regretted that she definitely had to decide against the voyage. The committee would, however, he supplied with certain historic material, including copies of the original specifications and a number of letters written by the designer, Hercules Linton, about the actual building of the vessel and her first voyage. Her husband, she mentioned, had purchased 1 lie Cutty Sark after it had put into Falmouth with a cargo of old iron. The vessel was then rigged ns a barquontino and the skipper was a negro from the Cape do Verclo Islands, an intelligent man who was very proud of his command, though the ship was by that time partially disabled. A THING OF BEAUTY. In every sailorman’s eyes tho Cutty Sark was prized in her heyday as the most beautiful craft that ever ploughed tho waves. Designed and built by Hercules Linton for Captain John Willis, of London, she was launched at Dumbarton in 1869, and very quickly established herself as a rival to tho famous Thermopylae, then the acknowledged queen of the flyers. When in tho Australian wool trade, to which she was transferred from the China run, tho Cutty Sark frequently overhauled the mail steamers and created a sensation by; completing a voyage from .Sydney to Ushant in 67 days. In a good wind her speed often exceeded 15 knots, and it was one of her characteristics that she would stand up to any amount of “ driving.” With a following sea and even the strongest of westerlies behind her she sailed so buoyantly that never a drop of water was shipped, notwithstanding her phenomenal spread of canvas. In 1895 tho vessel was sold to the Portuguese, whoso flag she flew until 1922. It was thou, though a pathetic travesty of her former self, that she was bought by Captain Dowman, who. years before, as ho himself said, had fallen in love with her. She was rigged and repaired at Falmouth. and blossomed forth once more in all her original beauty, though her functions were limited to those of a stationary training ship. There was a proposal some years ago that the vessel should be brought to Sydney to act as clubship to the League of Ancient Mariners, but for reasons both practical and sentimental the idea was not adopted.