Cutty Sark Story

John Richardson

Description

Over the years there have been so many books published on both the existence and the history of Cutty Sark, that one may wonder if there is anything new to be added. In this ebook no attempt has been made to add anything new; its object is merely to create a more vivid impression of an historic event which took place in May 1916 off the South African coast. Between the years of 1895 and 1922, Cutty Sark as we know her today, was sailing under the Portuguese flag as Ferreira. At a later date she was sold to another Lisbon ship owner named Da Silva who changed her name to Maria di Amparo, but in 1923 Captan Wilfred Dowman bought the ship for Britain and gave her the name of Cutty Sark. In the year of 1916 when sailing under the Portuguese as Ferreira, the ship was severely undermanned for a so called short sea passage from Mozambique and around the Cape of Good Hope to Mossamedes. On that passage, Ferreira hit some heavy weather off the Eastern Cape: as a consequence her master was compelled to cut his masts away. As well as a number of other incidents regarding the ship under her three different names, the saga of Ferreira's part dismasting has been made one of the main themes of this ebook.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Maritime history
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 01 août 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781784627324
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Cutty Sark Story
John Richardson
Copyright 2014 John Richardson The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
Matador 9 Priory Business Park Kibworth Beauchamp Leicestershire LE8 0RX, UK Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] Email: [e-mail] Web: www.troubador.co.uk/matador
ISBN 9781784627324
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd
Frontispiece

The re-built and re-rigged Cutty Sark at Falmouth between the wars.

John Richardson s ebooks to be published by Troubador in 2014
Victims of Atlantis
This is a story of a cleverly disguised German merchant ship which during WW2, sank or captured 22 allied vessels amounting to 142,000 tons. Unpublished in print form, this ebook consists of 260 pages and has well over 100 photographs of ships and crews.
The story itself, has emanated from the diary of 16 year old Graeme Cubbin, a company cadet, who as a prisoner on board Atlantis for almost six months, witnessed and chronicled many of the raider s sinkings.
Front cover - Atlantis.



Sailing Ships of Liverpool Volumes 1 and 2
These two volumes are full of stories about the windjammers which traded in the late nineteenth century, about their sailors, and the extremely hard conditions they had to endure. Packed with photographs, Each volume is over 200 pages, and includes a number of colour plates from the author s own paintings.
Front cover White Star Line s four masted barque California.



Sailing Ships of Scotland
Similar to previous ebook publications by John Richardson, and Troubador Publishing. This two book volume is full of pictures, colour plates and exciting tales of the sea. Furthermore, there will be more, and all with the same front cover appearance.
Front cover - The tea clipper Stornoway.
Contents
Foreword
Author
Introduction
Hercules Linton
Cutty Sark
Suez Canal
Alfred Holt
Crew List
List of Voyages
Maiden Voyage crew
Captain G Moodie
Captain FW Moore
Captain WE Tiptaft
Captain JS Wallace
Captain W Bruce
Captain F Moore
Crew Deserters
Captain R Woodget
Twilight of the Clippers
A Passer By
Cutty Sark s Three Appearances
Hazards of the Sea
The South African Coast
Ferreira Dismasted
Badly Loaded Cargoes
Captain W Dowman
A Sailor From The Past
Picture Glossary
JRC Spurling
Blackadder
Stornoway
Thermopylae
Torrens
Westward Ho!
Norman Court
18 Colour Plates
Piako
Aeriel
Cutty Sark
Scawfell
Cutty Sark
Cutty Sark
Ferreira
Thermopylae
Ferreira
Ferreira
La Hogue
Blackadder
Stornoway
Torrens
Westward Ho
Norman Court
Lightning
Donald McKay
James Baines
BUCKINGHAM PALACE

I have been associated with Cutty Sark ever since the Cutty Sark Society was founded in 1951, with the purpose of buying, restoring and exhibiting this famous sailing ship to the public. Built as a tea clipper, she only found her best form as a wool clipper on the run from Australia to London. Even in her dry dock at Greenwich, she still has the looks of an ocean thoroughbred.
I warmly welcome this excellent book. It is expertly written and very well illustrated. The author combines his artistic skill with a wide knowledge of the sea, and an exceptional ability to tell a dramatic story in clear and concise language. The brilliant account of her tragic dismasting off the South African coast during the First World War adds a new and previously little-known incident in her long career. She made a remarkable recovery, but it marked the beginning of the old ship s gradual decline. This was only ended when she entered her special dock at Greenwich in 1954. It is good to know that, after 50 years on public display, Cutty Sark is to be given a thorough overhaul, which, we all hope, will give her a new lease of life as one of the finest examples of the last generation of sailing ship design and construction.


His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, Patron of The Cutty Sark Preservation Society. He is seen in the above photograph being welcomed aboard his ship on 28 May 1953. His visit marked the beginning of a long programme of refurbishment and overhauls for the ship s future preservation.
About the Author

John Richardson was born in Liverpool in 1937, joined the Sea Cadets in 1950, and later spent two years at a Nautical School before joining the Merchant Navy in 1953. On joining his first ship as a deck boy, and aqfter seeing the ferocious and merciless North Atlantic Ocean in its many moods, he developed a strong urge to draw and paint the sea and ships. Self taught through a lot of trial and error, the author spent much of his spare time drawing what he had seen at sea as well as using his own imagination.
He left the Merchant Navy to join the South African Navy in 1975, and in his subsequent sea going duties served aboard various supply and auxiliary vessels as a rigger, as well as spending the last years of his sea career on Ton Class minesweepers. On invitation he later became the marine artist for the South Africa Navy and was thereafter commissioned to paint various warships. But in being a rigger he always held a special interest for the square rigged sailing ships of bygone times.
Before leaving his last ship the SAS Kimberley, and after retiring from the service in 1990, not only did he continue to paint South African Navy warships but also numerous sailing vessels as well. He then took up his new pastime of writing which included a book titled A Deck Boy s Diary which described his first trip to sea on the Willesden of London, and also about maritime history, his paintings and the ships they portrayed.
With regard to the Cutty Sark and its history to which this book relates, it must be realised that when that ship ceased trading in 1922 it was long before the author s time, and little in the way of records or logs on the ship since 1922 had been preserved. Over the years therefore, the author has had to collect as much information on the ship and its maritime existence as possible, and then with his own maritime experience, has pieced them all together to form the contents of this book. In order to keep the pages of this book in opposing pairs, it has at times been necessary to add a page to do so. Such pages have been termed as interesting photos from the days of sail.
The author now lives in Swansea with his wife Barbara and their two sons. The eldest of whom chose a life in the army, while the youngest who opted for a life at sea is presently serving as a master mariner of both sail and power driven vessels.
Introduction
Ever since man first took to the water on a log before discovering the use of oar and sail, continuous efforts have been made to improve his waterborne craft. Maritime transport over the centuries has since become more efficient, whilst during the slow and tedious development from the aforesaid log to the fully rigged ship, those waterborne craft became bigger, faster and safer. In the nineteenth century however, after thousands of years of development sail finally reached its epitome, and in doing so surrendered its domination of the seas to the tin kettle smoke belching steam ships.
Nevertheless, on reaching the pinnacle of their design and development, and after having ruled the oceans of the world for so long, those ships of sail were to have one last defiant fling at their coal burning challengers. Those ships were the thoroughbreds of countless years of progression, and indeed, as the aristocrats of sail they were affectionately known as The Clipper Ships.
The Americans were the innovators of those ocean greyhounds known as clippers, and it was from their sleek Baltimore schooners that the concept of clipper ships began. The new breed of sail was so named or termed, clippers because of their ability to sail faster than the clumsy bluff bowed ships of the day. They clipped valuable time from their passages, and despite the fact there was no such rig as a clipper rig the name stuck.
Some people will say that the fine lined Ann McKim of 1832 was the first ever fully rigged clipper ship, but in view of the curious difference in her draught between fore and aft, others claim that the Rainbow built eleven years later laid claim to the honour. Nevertheless, nobody will ever be able to say for certain just which was the first ever clipper ship, and neither will anybody be able to say which was the first to be built in Britain. In those days there were no standards, rules or guidelines as to the design of a clipper on either side of the Atlantic. There was no such rig known as a clipper, it was a slang word, so how could any shipyard claim to be the first to build one?
After that successful American development, however, Britain quickly followed suit and began its own clipper ship building programme. The result being the Scottish Maid, a topsail schooner of 142 tons which was built at the yard of Alexander Hall in 1839. Because of her fine lines and dead-rise, she arguably had some claim to being Britain s first clipper ship. have been referred to as an opium carrier. But because of Torrington s large dead rise which enabled her to travel at as much as fourteen knots, she too was graced with the newly fangled pseudonym of being a clipper ship, but better referred to as an opium clipper