The tea clipper Cutty Sark may have been the fastest ship of her day, but the wool trade Cutty Sark obviously was. By a wide margin, too - she won the race from Australia to England ten years out of ten under Captain Woodget.

A clipper in the tea trade made her name by her performance in the Doldrums. The greater the sail area that could be carried there without being 'thrown on her beam ends', the better. But for the wool trade, the supreme achievement was the exact opposite - the strength to keep going in the huge swells and high winds of the Southern seas when lesser ships had to 'hove to', to face the wind with 'bare poles'. Small strong sails, high off the water, were the best there. And, it was there that the staunch hull of the Cutty Sark made her unquestionably the 'Queen of the Seas'.

My grandfather joined her at London in May 1880 to complete his apprenticeship, just after she had been 'cut down' for work as a freight carrier. He lived long enough to teach me my knots. He's at right here in the 1940's, accepting yet another print of a sailing ship as he retired from 35 years as a school trustee.

The Cutty Sark inspired much of my childhood learning. Beginning with the places my grandfather sailed to in her, I was drawn into reading of the history and geography of the world, a fascination that has continued throughout my life.

And so it is that I'm making a 1:100 model of her in the rig in which he first saw her, in port almost ready to go.

We know precisely her rigging as a tea clipper, for we still have the work book of her carpenter, detailing the exact sizes of every stick of her. But, there seems to be no document that survives to detail her rig after March 1880. All I have to go on is the work order of March 1880, specifying that her lower masts were to be reduced by 9'6", the lower yards shortened by 7', other spars 'in proportion', and the skysail mast and stunsails removed.

There is, however, a superb photograph of her taken a few years later, by Captain Woodget in Sydney harbour. My grandfather got a copy early this century, either from Sir Basil Lubbock or from Captain Woodget. It is shown at right. The rigging is squared to perfection, and the photo can be scaled (perspective-corrected) to a consistency of a few percent except for the bowsprit and gaffs.

Here are the results of my scaling:

Grandfather insisted for most of his life that the Cutty Sark was only cut down after he left her, and his copy of Lubbock's "The Log of the Cutty Sark", which I now have, contains an indignant correction to this effect. However, it seems that by 1957 that he had accepted Lubbock's thesis, as his recounting of his voyage then to his daughter Ethel Tillenius mentions it. "Cutting down" a ship's rig was done in most cases simply to save money, and was considered an indignity by seamen.

The measurements above show a substantial further reduction in sail plan from that specified in the dock order, specifically a shortening of all the wooden spars and of the bowsprit. Some of this (it would not have required dock facilities) may have been done by Captain Woodget, who brought her to a peak of performance that made her the fastest ship of her time on the Australian run, but it might well have been done in 1881 as grandfather said, as part of the repairs required after the neglect of his voyage. So, I'm following the dock order.

G.F.Campbell made detailed drawings of her 1870 tea rig for the Cutty Sark Preservation Society, which I have. There is no evidence I am aware of for any change in rigging in 1880 other than reductions in length. (After Captain Woodget took command in 1885, he strengthened several things.)

I'm making it in plastic, starting with a Revell kit I got and started many years ago, with full rigging and furled sails. The original model was designed with a simplified rigging, but Revell kindly provided me with an additional tree of the original blocks so everything would match nicely.

The colour scheme of the ship changed over time. The best source I know of for good colour photos of her as she was restored in drydock is "The Cutty Sark", Frank G.G.Carr, Pitkin Pictorials. Copies are available at ABE Books, the world of books on the Internet.