Royal Museums Greenwich senior curator Louise Macfarlane tells us about the ship’s history and how it has become near impossible to ‘think of Greenwich and not picture Cutty Sark’
The Cutty Sark is a “landmark, a meeting point, a wonderful oddity on the Greenwich skyline that locals and non-locals have embraced as theirs”, explains Louise Macfarlane, senior curator at Royal Museums Greenwich.
On its position in local history, she adds how “the London Marathon passing by each year and the fact that generations of people have visited the ship on school and family trips has reinforced this emotional connection that continues today”.
The 10 December marked 70 years of the ship being docked in Greenwich and RMG is celebrating this historical date by taking a look back over its journey.
There are two new displays for you to enjoy: one features Nannie, the ship’s figurehead, and one looks at how and why Cutty Sark came to find a final home in Greenwich 70 years ago.
The Nannie display explores why and how figureheads were made and the fact that the ship has had at least three versions of the same figurehead in its 155 years.
The display on the 70th anniversary features historic photographs and never-before-displayed colour footage of Cutty Sark’s final voyage to Greenwich. It also has an interactive feature that allows you to add your own memories of the ship.
For those who can’t wait, you can also submit a memory online at www.rmg.co.uk/cuttysarkmemories.
Louise says how they “really wanted to provide a space for people to share their emotional connections to Cutty Sark”.
Having worked in museums for nearly 20 years, Louise says that “no two days are the same” when it comes to work at RMG.
She says that “curator”, for her, basically means storyteller: it’s her job to tell the story of Cutty Sark and its crew.
This storytelling takes the form of exhibitions and displays, writing books, giving tours and talks, researching uncovered records, cataloguing objects for online search tools and more to make the ship’s story as accessible and appealing to as many people as possible.
But how did the Cutty Sark come to dock in Greenwich? Louise explains: “One ship’s bad luck became Cutty Sark’s good fortune. From the late 1930s, Cutty Sark was owned by the Incorporated Thames Nautical College, down in Greenhithe, and was used as a cadet training ship so that young men who wanted careers at sea could, quite literally, learn the ropes.
“After the Second World War, the College acquired a new ship and Cutty Sark was no longer needed. At around the same time, a site in Greenwich was promised as a permanent home for HMS Implacable, a veteran of the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar.
“The costs of restoring and looking after Implacable, however, were eventually deemed too high and it was instead scuttled (or deliberately sunk). The then Director of the National Maritime Museum, Frank Carr, vowed this fate would not befall Cutty Sark.
“With the patronage of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, they established the Cutty Sark Preservation Society, secured the site in Greenwich once promised to Implacable, raised public funds for a specially built dry dock and, on 10 December 1954, Cutty Sark was floated in.
“The water drained away with the natural ebb of the tide and Cutty Sark had left water for the final time and was in its final home in maritime Greenwich.
“A three-year restoration followed before the ship was finally opened to the public in June 1957.”
Of the ship’s history, Louise says what stands out most about it is that it is still here.
She explains that it is the sole surviving tea clipper ship in the world and has just celebrated its 155th birthday.
“It was a special ship when it was built because it represented the pinnacle of sailing ship design and it went on to have a lengthy and remarkable career,” she adds. “But now that it’s the last one left, it’s also a symbol of vessels and a time that are long since gone.”
Greenwich plays a big part of the ship’s history and is a welcomed home for the tea clipper today.
The Cutty Sark was originally built in Dumbarton, Scotland, but its home port of registry was London.
As a working ship, it mostly loaded and unloaded its cargoes at East India Docks. The docks are no longer in operation, as Louise explains, but they sat just northeast, on the north bank of where Cutty Sark now sits.
“Not only did the ship sail very close by but where could be better suited than maritime Greenwich, home of the National Maritime Museum, meridian line and Old Royal Naval College for one of the most famous ships in the world to settle,” she asks.
Cutty Sark, King William Walk, SE10 9HT
