CUTTY SARK AGAIN

Evening Star, Issue 22954, 11 May 1938, Page 2

CUTTY SARK AGAIN

AS THAMES TRAINIKfi SHIP The famous old China tea clipper, Cutty Sark, whose owner, Captain W. H. Dowman, died two years ago, _is being taken to London as a boys’ training ship. From her berth at Jbalmoutli, where she lias been the dolignt of South Coast holiday makers since 1922, she is to be brought to the Thames as a companion to the Worcester —a revered, if less graceful, sister da sail, who carried guns some five years before the Cutty Sark first began to carry tea beneath her white wings. She will be moored in the river beside the training ship Worcester, at Greenhithe, Kent, and will be used for sail drill and similar exercises by boys being trained for the Navy, and merchant service. . Mrs Dowman, Captain Dowman s widow, who lives at The Wyko Lodge, Weymouth, was approached _by the Thames Nautical Training College, and decided to present the Cutty Sark to the college. She has given instructions for the Cutty Sark to be towed to London during the summer. Until Captain Dowman’s death the clipper was used as a training ship for boys. “ The public will be allowed to board her,” added Mrs Dowman. “ She will not be altered, but will be carefully preserved.”

The Cutty Sark was the last of the racing tea clippers.. She was built ia

1869 at Dumbarton, and started m th* tea trade with China. Her greatest tri-i umphs were later, when she took parti in the grain races from Australia. Hoi* best run-for 24 hours was 370 miles,, averaging 15$ knots, and she once out* paced the P. and 0. mail steamer,Britannia, when logging a steady 15 knots. ' . Captain Dowman bought the Cutty Sark in 1922 fnrVthe Portuguese. t» whom she had been sold. He paid £3,750 for her. Mrs Dowman it fused offers for the vessel from jnany. parti of the world*