#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

[clove-pinks]

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

[sometimeslondon]

The masts and rigging of the Cutty Sark at Greenwich

[ltwilliammowett]

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

[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.

[lonestarbattleship]

The American Clipper USS ROSSIE and British ship, Princess Amelia engaging, on September 16, 1812.

"Commodore Joshua Barney in the Baltimore-built Clipper Schooner USS ROSSIE of 14 guns and 120 men sailed on September 7. On the 9th, a British squadron of 3 ships vainly tried to overhaul him and, on the 12th, a British frigate chased him for 6 hours and then gave up. On the 16th, ROSSIE fell in with the British ship, PRINCESS AMELIA, an armed trader, and for one hour there was a steady combat. The Rossie was badly cut up in sails and rigging but her hull and spars escaped. She had 7 men hurt, one severely. The PRINCESS AMELIA was badly cut up alow and aloft and had her captain, sailing master, and a seaman killed and 7 wounded before she surrendered."

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command: USN 903308

[scotianostra]

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

Cutty Sark was built for a firm of ship owners called Willis & Sons, headed by John ‘Jock’ Willis, whose ambition was that she be the fastest ship in the annual race to bring home the first of the new season’s tea from China.

She was designed by Hercules Linton, a partner in the Dumbarton firm of Scott & Linton. It is believed that he moulded the bowlines of Willis’s earlier vessel Tweed into the midship attributes of Firth of Forth fishing boats, creating a beautiful new hull shape that was stronger, could take more sail, and be driven harder than any other.

The company had never built a ship of this size before and ran into financial difficulties, eventually going bankrupt before she was completed. The final details of the fitting out had to be completed by William Denny & Brothers, Scott & Linton’s landlords and the guarantors for the completion of the work on the original contract.

Cutty Sark was towed to Greenock for final work on her masts and rigging. She was then taken to London to load her first cargo for China in 1870.

The ship was named after Cutty-sark, the nickname of the witch Nannie Dee in Robert Burns's 1791 poem Tam o' Shanter. 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 black hair holding a grey horse's tail in her hand. In the poem she wore a linen sark that she had been given as a child, which explains why it was cutty, or in other words far too short. The erotic sight of her dancing in such a short undergarment caused Tam to cry out "Weel done, Cutty-sark", which subsequently became a well known catchphrase. Originally, carvings by Hellyer of the other scantily clad witches followed behind the figurehead along the bow, but these were removed by Willis in deference to 'good taste'. Tam o' Shanter riding Meg was to be seen along the ship's quarter. The motto, Where there's a Willis away, was inscribed along the taffrail. The Tweed, which acted as a model for much of the ship which followed her, had a figurehead depicting Tam o' Shanter.

Unfortunately for Willis, the launch of the Cutty Sark coincided with the opening of the Suez Canal and the growing popularity of steamships. Steam-driven ships could pass through the canal, whereas clipper ships like the Cutty Sark could not. That meant that steam, ships could cut thousands of miles off the trip to China to collect tea. The Cutty Sark, though one of the fastest clipper ships ever built, was outmoded almost before it sailed.

While the Cutty Sark's career in the tea trade was less than a success, her next career in the Australian wool trade was where she truly shone. From 1883-95 the ship made the Australian run, bringing wool exports back to London.

The Cutty Sark consistently outsailed her competitors, and she dominated the wool trade for over a decade, earning a reputation for exceptional speed on the 2-month voyage. She famously once overtook and passed the steamship Britannia, travelling at a rate of 17 knots.

But once more the steamship spoiled the Cutty Sark's career, and once the steam vessels made the Australian wool trade their own, the Cutty Sark was sold to a Portuguese company. From 1895-1922 the ship (renamed Ferreira) was a tramp vessel, carrying cargo between Portugal and the far-flung corners of the Portuguese Empire.

In 1922 the Ferreira put into Falmouth to repair damage suffered in a gale. A retired sea captain named Wilfred Dowman saw the ship and determined to buy her. Dowman restored the Cutty Sark to approximately how she had appeared during her days as a tea clipper.

The ship was used for naval training until 1951 when it was sent to London for the Festival of Britain. She might well have been scrapped following the festival, but the ship was saved by the National Maritime Museum and put into dry dock at Greenwich in 1954, beside the Old Royal Naval College.

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.

The Cutty Sark is in permanent dry dock at Greenwich, London as a museum ship, check their web page here https://www.rmg.co.uk/cutty-sark/history