| Cutty Sark and Thermopylae |
The Cutty Sark was designed by Hercules Linton as a composite built extreme clipper ship for "Old White Hat" Jock Willis of London. She sailed on the China Tea Trade for a couple of seasons without distinguishing herself and lost her rudder in 1872 off the Cape of Good Hope when racing Thermopylae for London with the first tea.
She was moved over to the Australian wool trade when the tea trade was taken over by the steam ships. Here she proved to be a regularly fast sailer. But was sold to the Portuguese in 1895 and served for many year's as the training ship Fereirra. Rerigged as a barquentine after having been dismasted in a gale off the Cape of Good Hope in May 1916 and renamed Mario do Ambaro.
Then in 1922 she was purchased by Capt. Dowman and restored for use as a stationary training ship, first at Falmouth then later in 1938 she was moved to The Thames where she remained until 1949 after which she was permanently dry-docked at Greenwich as a museum ship.
The Thermopylae was built at the shipyard of Walter Hood & Co., Aberdeen, in 1868 for George Thompson's "White Star Line". She measured 212.0 ft x 36.0 ft x 20.9 ft and 948 tons net. Designed as an extreme clipper for the China tea trade and rigged as a three-masted ship. On her maiden voyage Thermopylae made a record crossing from Gravesend to Melbourne in 63 days, on her continued voyage to Shanghai she set another record between those two ports.
In 1872 Thermopylae left Shanghai with a cargo of tea for London in company with the London clipper Cutty Sark. After racing each other for two weeks Cutty Sark lost her rudder after having passed the Sunda Straits. Thermopylae finally arrived in London only seven days ahead of her rival.
Sold to Canadian owners in 1890 who cut her down her rig to that of a barque. In 1895 Thermopylae was also sold to the Portuguese Government who converted her to a training ship and renamed her Pedro Nunes. Her end came in 1906 when she was torpedoed at sea by units of the Portuguese Navy.
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