The Cutty Sark is the world’s only surviving tea clipper, having briefly plied her trade between Britain and China in the 1870s.

She was designed for speed to bring back the first tea harvest of the year, and in her day was regarded as a very modern vessel.

Built in 1869 in Dumbarton, near Glasgow, and originally designed to last just 30 years, the Cutty Sark is a rare construction with a wrought iron frame clad in timber. Scott & Linton - the first shipyard involved in her construction - went bankrupt as it struggled to cope with her exacting specifications. The ship was completed by Dennys.

Among her revolutionary design features the crew had lavatories, called the heads, at a time when answering the call of nature was usually done by squatting over the side of the ship.

Her Scottish origins are preserved in her name, which means “short shirt” in 18th century Scots. Robert Burns used the term in his poem Tam O’Shanter to describe the garment worn by a fleet-footed witch.

On the bow of the ship is the motto: “Where there’s a Willis a way”, a play on the name of the first owner, Jock ’White Hat’ Willis, so called for his trademark white top hat.

The Cutty Sark was one of the last tea clippers, narrow-beamed sailing ships that could make fortunes for their owners if they were first back to London, because the first tea cargo of the season could be sold at a premium. People used to bet on which vessel would win the race and the first sighting of a clipper’s tall masts off the English coast would be major news in the capital.

She was never the fastest, losing out by a week to the Thermopylae after a dramatic race from Shanghai to London in 1872 in which the Cutty Sark lost her rudder in heavy storms. Her notable performances included 360 nautical miles in 24 hours, or an average of 15 knots, the best speed for any ship of its size.

The Suez Canal was opened the week before work on her was completed, and quickly made tea clippers redundant. Steamers used the shorter sea route, while the sailing ships still went out by the Trade Winds and home by the Cape of Good Hope.

In 1875 her master Captain Tiptaft brought Cutty Sark home from Shanghai in 108 days, but the SS Glenartney took only 42 days through the canal. Cutty Sark's last tea run between Britain and China was in 1878.

Between 1883 and 1895 she sailed in the Australia wool trade, and here she did set a record, achieving the voyage from Australia to England in 72 days in 1885 via Cape Horn.

Her experiences were not always happy. One trip in the early 1880s proved so disastrous that it was dubbed the “Hell Ship” voyage, after a seaman named John Francis was killed, the crew mutinied and Captain Wallace committed suicide.

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