#clipper ships

[ltwilliammowett]

The clipper ships Taeping and Tweed at sea, by John Bentham-Dinsdale (1927-2008)

[lindahall]

Donald McKay – Scientist of the Day

Donald McKay, a Canadian/American shipbuilder, died Sep. 20, 1880, at age 70. 

read more...

[stone-cold-groove]

America’s outposts of security and defense...

[cdchyld]

Just added to the vintage shop!

~ "Clipper Ships of America and Great Britain 1833-1869" by Helen la Grange (1936)

[chasingchaosandkidsdailyy]

So we did a little living room make over last weekend, and it turned out fabulous! ⚓️

Painting of “King Conan” by Kirk O’Hara!

[illustratus]

A Clipper Ship in a Moonlit Sea by Montague Dawson

[letmeinimafairy]

Giving me a bag of sea pottery and glass was a bad idea. I'm OBSESSED. So here's a tea clipper on a teacup shard, will make it in a necklace. Now I'm thinking of stories in fragments, tales about ships on sea-rounded porcelain and glass

[vieformidable]

Beautiful Square Rigger! Flying her “studding sails”.

A studding sail, or stun'sl, is an extra sail on a square rigged vessel for use in fair weather. It is set outside the square sails, using stun'sl booms which run out along the yards.

More Cow Bell!!

[henk-heijmans]

Sailor looking at clipper ship, 1940 - by A. Aubrey Bodine (1906 - 1970), American

[scotianostra]

On 22nd November 1869 the clipper “Cutty Sark” was launched at Dumbarton on the River Clyde.

Built on the River Leven that flows out of Loch Lomond and joins the Clyde at Dumbarton at a cost of £16,150. Many people will tell you it was a Clyde built ship, but that’s not entirely true

The Cutty Sark was commissioned by John Willis, a Scots born businessman, in the late 1860s. Scott and Linton were contracted to build the Cutty Sark for a price of £17 per ton, a very low price even in those days.

1869 Scott and Linton were bankrupted due to the low contract price but not before they had completed and launched the hull and named it Cutty Sark.

The hull was towed across the river Leven to William Denny and Brothers on the Clyde for fitting out; she was rigged ready to sail in only 12 weeks. Cutty Sark set sail from London on her maiden voyage to Shanghai on the 16th February 1870 under the command of Captain George Moodie.

It had a dedicated service to the tea and wool trades, until being sold to a Portuguese cargo company in 1895, whereupon it was renamed the Ferreira.

These extremely fast clippers were able to cover long distances without the need of getting to port to reload coal. However, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 shortened trade routes and made them lose their advantage over steam ships.

The ship’s name comes from Nannie, the witch in the Robert Burns poem Tam O’Shanter, who was dressed in only a “cutty sark” – an old Scottish term for a short nightie. The ship's figurehead, the original of which has been attributed to carver Fredrick Hellyer of Blackwall, is a stark white carving of a bare-breasted Nannie Dee with long hair holding a grey horse's tail in her han

In 1922, retired captain Wilfred Dowman bought the clipper for his personal use before, in 1938, his widow donated it to the training academy at Greenhithe, Kent to be used as a school ship by young cadets. At Greenhithe Cutty Sark acted as an auxiliary vessel to HMS Worcester for sail training drill, but by 1950 she had become surplus to requirements.

In 1953 Cutty Sark was given to the Cutty Sark Preservation Society and in 1954 she was moved to a custom-built dry dock at Greenwich. Cutty Sark was preserved as a museum ship, and has since become a popular tourist attraction.

In 2007 a devastating fire broke out aboard the Cutty Sark, and it appeared that the ship might be completely destroyed. Thankfully total disaster was avoided, but the subsequent restoration lasted until 2012. On 19th October 2014 she was damaged in a smaller fire.

Cutty Sark whisky derives its name from the ship. An image of the clipper appears on the label, and the maker formerly sponsored the Cutty Sark Tall Ships Race. The ship also inspired the name of the Saunders Roe Cutty Sark flying boat.

[clove-pinks]

Clipper Ships, New York Harbor (detail), by Thomas Birch c. 1830.

[ltwilliammowett]

Two portraits of clipper ship, by H. Silva Fernandes, 21st century

[blondebrainpowered]

Whale tooth scrimshaw carving featuring an image of a clipper ship, American, c. 1825-1875. 

[sometimeslondon]

The masts and rigging of the Cutty Sark at Greenwich

[sev-on-kamino]

💙 OC x OC 💙

let’s bring some fun vibes to the dash and get to know each other’s OCs a little better.

Please send an ask with a short description of your OC, and I’ll ship them with one of my OCs, and give a few HCs for their ship.

Alternatively, if I have an OC you think is a good fit with yours, please mention them in the ask!

This can be romantic or platonic, so please specify in your ask.

please feel free to reblog!

[colleybri]

I must go down to the seas again,

To the lonely sea and the sky.

And all I ask is a tall ship

And a star to steer her by.

From ‘Sea Fever’ by John Masefield

Probably my favourite of my photos from Royal Clipper on my trip of a lifetime transatlantic sailing last year. Only an iPhone on night mode. What a stunning ship she is.

On a broader level, the poem is also about living a life of freedom – or the dream of that.

Full poem:

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;

And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,

And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.