u3a Bromley wins private tour of Cutty Sark

I have no idea how, but I was awarded a private tour by the Greenwich museums after filling in a questionnaire on behalf of u3a Bromley. Their aim being to encourage u3as to visit. I invited group leaders and the committee to make a small party and five of us made the trip by train and DLR to Greenwich.

We were expected and given our own guide to take us around the Cutty Sark for a very full hour. The Cutty Sark (built 1869) is bound in to the history of the Tea Trade and owners could make amazing fortunes, with just one successful cargo. However, Cutty Sark’s tea career was cut short by the Suez Canal.

Opened in the same week as Cutty Sark was launched, the canal cut the voyage out to China by over 3,000 miles. Instead of sailing all the way around the continent of Africa, ships could now simply sail through the Mediterranean Sea and the canal to reach the Indian Ocean. But it was not a practical option for sailing ships like Cutty Sark. Instead, steamships could now take advantage of this ‘short cut’ to load greater amounts of tea and return to London at least ten days earlier than Cutty Sark could hope for. After just eight voyages, Cutty Sark was forced out of the trade for which it had been built.

The wool trade rescued its fortunes for a while until again, steam ships took over. Eventually the Cutty Sark was sold to a Portuguese firm and renamed Ferreira. It was used as a general cargo ship, transporting goods between Portugal and its empire. In the 1920s, she was in poor condition and after a storm was in Falmouth for repairs and was spotted by local retired sea captain Wilfred Dowman. Determined to save the ship and restore it to former glory, he offered to buy it for £3,500 – more than what the ship was worth even in 1895. The old name was restored in 1923, and Cutty Sark returned to British ownership.

After our tour, the group had a break in the Maritime Museum café and then had a talk (just for us) in the Polar Worlds gallery about Shackleton's legendary Antarctic expedition. The museum encourages its guides to do talks about subjects that particularly inspire them, and our guide’s enthusiasm for all things Shackleton shone through.

PS Fun Fact. Being called a ‘Limey’ was because the British had discovered the efficacy of bottled concentrated lime juice in preventing scurvy and British sailors were called ‘limeys’. The Americans adopted it as general term for the British people during WW1.

Contributed by Sandy Boden