Firstly on while undergoing conservation. The Cutty Sark has been damaged by fire twice in recent years. She is now in dry-dock at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. She was said to have been the fastest of any ship of her size. Under the command of the respected Captain Richard Woodget, she did very well, posting Australia-to- England times of as little as 67 days. The Cutty Sark was then used in the Australian wool trade. Unfortunately, her cargo capacity was much smaller than the full-bodied sailing ships of the period and she was barely profitable. The Cutty Sark was used to cargo coal, jute, hemp, wool or whatever cargoes were available. In 1878 the Clippers, as a result of this, were out of the tea trade. There was a great rivalry between clippers and steamships as the steamships were faster and cheaper to carry cargo from the East. Her legendary reputation is supported by the fact that her captain chose to continue this race with an improvised rudder instead of putting into port for a replacement, yet was only beaten by one week. In the most famous race, against Thermopylae in 1872, both ships left Shanghai together on June 18, but two weeks later Cutty Sark lost her rudder after passing through the Sunda Strait, and arrived in London on October 18, a week after Thermopylae, for a total passage of 122 days. The Cutty Sark was destined for the China tea trade, at that time an intensely competitive race across the globe from China to London, with immense profits to the ship to arrive with the first tea of the year. History of the Cutty Sarkīuilt in 1869 at Dumbarton in Scotland, by the firm of Scott & Linton, for Captain John ‘Jock’ ‘White Hat’ Willis, and launched November 23 of that year. The detail in their range of large ship models is exceptional. Their ship model kits use photo-etched brass, cast metal fittings, cast metal and machined turned brass fittings. Mantua have built its reputation on large, elaborately detailed ship model kits. The Cutty Sark Model Ship Kit is manufactured by Mantua Model Ships & Mantua Model Boats. Cutty Sark Model Ship Kit – Mantua (MA789)

Cutty sark clipper ship model kit