Cutty Sark

Cutty Sark is a famous 19th century sailing ship, built in Dumbarton in 1869, and is the world’s only surviving tea-clipper. She was one of the last clippers ever built, and one of the fastest; before improvements in steam-power, Cutty Sark held the record sailing time between Australia and Britain for a decade. The ship was named for Cutty-sark, nickname of the witch Nannie Dee in Robert Burns’ 1791 poem Tam o’ Shanter. Nannie Dee wore a linen sark – a chemise or undershirt – that was too short – or ‘cutty’.  The ship’s figurehead is a magnificent carving of Nannie Dee with long black hair holding a grey horse’s tail. The ship actually boasts a fine collection of ships’ figureheads. Carefully restored after a disastrous fire in 2007, Cutty Sark has been raised about 10 feet (3+ metres) so that visitors are able to walk right underneath her copper-bottomed hull. On deck and below are fascinating displays and accounts of the ship’s history and life on board.