DISCOVER LONDONBelow:‘CuttySark’
(1869) by JE Cooperin New York where everyone was discharged.
Cutty Sark’s reputation duly plummeted, with
sailors from far and wide referring to her as a
“hellship”. She nevertheless managed more work in
Australia transporting wool, before being used as a
training ship for the Merchant Navy in London in the
1930s, sliding towards certain death on the scrapheap.
Thankfully the Cutty Sark Preservation Society
came to the rescue and her life as a museum began.
Since then plenty of conservation work has been done
on her, although two fires have broken out on her
causing considerable damage.
Cutty Sark might remain on dry land from
now on, but her history, heritage and lifeblood
will always run through the oceans of the globe. nRGB VENTURES / SUPERSTOCK / ALAMY/ STEPHAN KARGIt’s up on deck that you get closer to
understanding what day-to-day life was
like for the crew of the Cutty Sark
popular with the rest of the crew who were angry that
he’d lied about his experience and skill, putting them
at risk. There was tension between him and Smith.”
Then, there came a dark and stormy night when Francis
and Smith got into a row about the sails. Who reached
for what weapon first and the precise details of what
happened remain as murky as the waters Cutty Sark
was sailing on, but suffice to say Francis was left with
a severe head injury and died within a couple of days.
The captain at the time, Wallace, was only 24 years old
and lacking in experience. He didn’t imprison Smith and,
according to Stockton, various accounts suggest that he
disposed of the murder weapon over the side. When they
arrived in Singapore, Smith escaped. “The crew hadn’t
liked Francis much, but they didn’t like that the first mate
would get away with murder,” says Stockton. “They
were angry and told magistrates in Singapore they were
pressured to sign false accounts of what had happened.”
This tension became too much for Wallace, who
realised that when the voyage was over, his career would
be too, and he walked off the back of the ship leaving the
vessel without a captain or first mate. A new captain was
somehow installed, but he was a drunk who preached
temperance and was bad at provisioning, meaning
Cutty Sark kept having to be rescued by other ships.
A voyage that should have lasted for a year took double
that time and never even got back to London. She arrived
Clockwise, from
top left: Visitors can
stand beneath
Cutty Sark’s copper
hull; a desk in the
ship’s quarters; her
main mast is 153
feet high; Cutty Sark
(1869) by JE Cooper