Cutty Sark - 149 years of history: 1895-1922: The Portuguese Years as Ferreira, " A Pequena Camisola " ...

After being sold to J. Ferreira & Co. Cutty Sark was renamed the Ferreira. Reminiscent of her days in the late 1870s and early 1880s, Ferreira tramped various cargoes mainly between Portugal and her empire, and was a regular visitor to Rio, New Orleans, Mozambique, Angola and the UK. In the twentieth century she traded regularly between Oporto, Rio, New Orleans and Lisbon, and her crew claimed she was still capable of doing sixteen knots. In October 1915 Portugal declared war on Germany which meant that the ship was in constant danger of being sunk by enemy naval activity. She survived unscathed until May 1916, when the rolling of the ship in bad weather led to the dismasting of the main mast and everything above the fore lowermast and the mizzen top-masts. Badly damaged, Ferreira was towed into port, arriving at Table Bay, South Africa.

Cutty Sark 1895-1922: The Portuguese Years as Ferreira, " A Pequena Camisola ": Cutty Sark’s Courtesy State Library of Victoria, Allan C. Green collection of glass negatives.

The cost and rarity of adequate masts and yards due to the war meant that she was converted into a barquentine (fore and aft rig) over an eighteen month period at Cape Town. Maria do Amparo (Cutty Sark) prior to restoration.

Cutty Sark 1895-1922: The Portuguese Years as Ferreira, " A Pequena Camisola ": Cutty Sark’s ports of call 1870-1922. Courtesy Cutty Sark Trust

By January 1922 Ferreira ran into a Channel gale, and the captain put into Falmouth harbour to repair the damage. Wilfred Dowman, a retired windjammer skipper and owner of the training ship Lady of Avenel, saw the ship and set out to buy her. However, she returned to Lisbon without further mishap and was sold to a new Portuguese owner who changed her name to Maria do Amparo. But Dowman still wanted the ship, and at a price of £3750 (more than what she was worth even in 1895) it was brought back to Falmouth. In 1923 her old name and nationality was restored; Cutty Sark had returned to British ownership. In a career at sea lasting 50 years, Cutty Sark faced many dangers. The closest she came to being wrecked was in May 1916 off South Africa.

At the time, she was owned by a Portuguese company and called Ferreira. This is how her captain might have described the incident. Frederic Vincenzo de Sousa: Next month it will be 1918 and I will have been in Cape Town for nineteen months, waiting for my ship to be made sea-worthy once more. My name is Frederic Vincenzo de Sousa and I am the captain of the Ferreira. It is the ship the British called Cutty Sark until she was bought by the Ferreira Company of Lisbon in 1895.

Cutty Sark 1895-1922: The Portuguese Years as Ferreira, " A Pequena Camisola " at Birkenhead, 1914. Courtesy The Cutty Sark Trust

Indeed, we still call her A Pequena Camisola, the little camisole, the closest we can get to a Portuguese translation of ‘cutty sark’, because she still carried a small metal camisola / A pequena Camisola as her emblem at the top of her main mast. For the British, she transported tea from China to London and then wool from Australia, but for our company, she has carried anything and everything. We usually load and unload at ports in the Portuguese colonies or in our old colonies like Brazil, but we’ve been to the United States and even to England. The Great War goes on and every sailor is terrified of submarines. We’re lucky that we’ve never been attacked. But indirectly our ship was nearly a casualty herself.

Cutty Sark 1895-1922: The Portuguese Years as Ferreira, " A Pequena Camisola " at Tagus River, Lisbon, Portugal, 1913. Courtesy The Cutty Sark Trust

One of our regular cargoes is coal from Mozambique, and I know the capital of the colony, Laurenço Marques, very well. It is a beautiful town – the City of the Acácias, they call it. But when we tied up there in back in October 1915, it was a more sombre place. I soon learned the reason why – although there had been skirmishes with the Germans for a year, Portugal was about to go formally to war. As soon as we arrived, the authorities informed me that I and all my crew were being conscripted into the Portuguese Navy. Now, I am a patriot, but if every sailor is put into the Navy, who is left to transport the goods and materials Portugal needs to win this war? Eventually I managed to persuade them to take nine of my men, leaving me with two non-Portuguese seamen, six apprentices and my cook.

I had to find more men, but after six months’ effort, all I had been able to recruit were couple of fishermen and seven Mozambique men who had never been to sea before. Now I had a crew of eighteen: it was too few, but it was all I could muster. So in April 1916, with a hold full of coal to be delivered to Mossamedes in the southwest of Angola, we set sail. We hugged the coast all the way down to South Africa and by 1st May we were only a couple of days away from rounding the Cape of Good Hope – we were between Port Elizabeth and East London. Then the storm hit us. Every part of the sea that wasn’t white was an enormous crashing wave. The winds were reaching Force 10. Remember: I had seven men on board who had never been to sea before – imagine how terrified they were. They certainly were no use. Day after day it got worse. The ship rolled back and forth until a moment came when it rolled right over to port, with the lower yard arms in the water…. and she didn’t roll back. She stayed like that, right over. Some of the coal – only 15 or 20 tons of the thousand tons we had on board – had not been loaded properly and as the ship rolled, this loose coal had all shifted to the port side. So I had to send my apprentices down into the hold. With only a single hurricane lantern to light the space, they spent the whole day down there, shovelling the coal to get the ship back on an even keel. They managed to do it, but by the next morning, all their good work was undone and the ship was listing again. She was almost unsteerable, so I did not dare to try and steer for Port Elizabeth – we would have almost certainly been wrecked on the rocks. All I could do was sent the apprentices back into the hold again and pray that the weather would improve. But my prayers were not answered. No matter what the apprentices did, the coal shifted again and again. Finally it shifted so much that I knew there was no possibility of ever levelling the ship. My only hope of saving the ship was to reduce the weight of the rigging dragging us over. So over the next few days, we cut away at her masts and rigging and pitched them over the side until all that was left was the foremast and the foretopmast.

Even the metal camisola / A Pequena Camisola was gone. Finally, after 10 days, the wind eased up and I knew that, if I could find a ship to give us a tow, we could make Cape Town.

Cutty Sark 1895-1922: The Portuguese Years as Ferreira, " A Pequena Camisola ": The ship’s emblem, in the shape of a ‘Cutty Sark’, / A Pequena Camisola was fitted to the mast head. Courtesy The Cutty Sakr Trust.

But the first ship I made contact with was the SS Kia Ora. bound for Sydney, not Cape Town. Her captain was so worried about German submarines in the area, he wanted to get away as quickly as possible. He told me to scuttle my ship and he would take me and all my men to Australia with him. But I had come through too much to abandon A Pequena Camisola. For two more days, we drifted helplessly towards Cape Aghulas, and almost certain shipwreck. Then suddenly, another steamer, the Indraghiri, came into view. She saved us: she threw us a line and towed us into Table Bay.

Cutty Sark 1895-1922: The Portuguese Years as Ferreira, " A Pequena Camisola " dismasted under tow of Indraghiri, 1916. Courtesy The Cutty Sark Trust

But the ship was in a terrible state. The estimate for her repair, re-masting and re-rigging was £2,250. Unfortunately, she was only insured for £700. Not only that, because of the War, there was a shortage of timber to replace her yards. So I was instructed by the Company re-rig her as a barquentine, which has a smaller number of sails and uses less timber. And it needs fewer men to sail her. But, despite the changes I am forced to make, every seaman who lands in the Cape is coming to see her – my crew are acting as tourist guides! Yes, it is sad that she is no longer a square-rigged ship, but maybe one day she will look as beautiful again. She is a remarkable vessel: everyone who comes into contact with her has a great affection for her. I often think back to those dreadful days in May 1916 and what might have been. But I know I could never have abandoned her. Announcer: This is just one of the many stories of Cutty Sark that you can explore on the ship. She is now permanently docked in Greenwich, just 20 minutes from the centre of London. Come on board and discover why she is one of the most famous ships in the world...

The Great Wave painting by D. Swan. Cutty Sark 1895-1922: The Portuguese Years as Ferreira, " A Pequena Camisola ". Courtesy The Cutty Sark Trust

Cutty Sark - 149 years of history

22 November 1869: the launch of Cutty Sark

1869 was an eventful year for Cutty Sark. Cutty Sark began 1869 as words on a page, an agreement between John Willis, the owner, and Scott & Linton, the builders, and by 22nd November, was launched at Dumbarton in Scotland.

Cutty Sark in a Chinese Harbour by G. Geidel © Cutty Sark

Serving the tea trade

Cutty Sark was initially built to join the already highly competitive tea trade, between Britain and China, one of many merchant vessels carrying more than 100 million pounds of tea to feed the British market.

Going at a clip

The design of ‘clipper’ ships, like Cutty Sark, with long, narrow hulls often made of a light-yet-sturdy composite of wood and iron, sharp bows and a large sail area, were beneficial in this fast-paced trade, as they could ‘go at a clip’, or move quickly through the water, without sacrificing too much space for their valuable cargo.

The decline of the tea clipper

However, Cutty Sark’s launch in November 1869 had also coincided with the opening of the Suez Canal. Greatly reducing the voyage time between Britain and China, the canal was only open to steamships, which soon became the favoured transport for time-sensitive and valuable commodities like tea.

Bringing Australian wool to Britain

Having seen the availability of tea to sailing vessels dry up, Cutty Sark spent some time ‘tramping’, travelling between ports across the world, from China to India, Australia to the USA, carrying a variety of different cargoes they found in each port, before eventually settling in the wool trade, bringing Australia’s main export back to Britain, fuelling the Yorkshire mills of the Industrial Revolution.

Circular Quay, Sydney, with the 'Cutty Sark' loading wool

Speeding ahead

It was also during this time that Cutty Sark achieved her fastest voyages. Her fastest passage between Sydney and London was just 73 days, and she was able, under a skilled captain and crew, to reach a best recorded speed of 17.5 knots, establishing her reputation as one of the quickest ships in the trade.

A new life

In 1895, Cutty Sark was sold to a Portuguese company and renamed Ferreira then later Maria do Amparo, completing a wide variety of voyages from Portugal to USA, Angola, Mozambique, Brazil and Barbados, amongst many others, until 1922, even surviving the loss of most of her crew to conscription in the First World War.

Portuguese on board ' Ferreira, A Pequena Camisola ' (previously known as 'Cutty Sark') 1921

Saved for the nation

Having been damaged on the way from London to Lisbon, Cutty Sark called in at Falmouth for repairs, where she was seen by Captain Wilfred Dowman, who recognised the ship from his time as an apprentice and believed she should be saved for the nation. Paying well over the odds at £3750, Captain Dowman, jointly with his wife Catharine (nee Courtauld), bought and restored the ship. Renamed Cutty Sark, to widespread press coverage, the ship became a training ship for cadets in the merchant service, and a local visitor attraction.

Following Dowman’s death, Catharine Dowman ‘sold’ the ship to the Thames Nautical Training College in Greenhithe, Kent, for 10 shillings and donated £5000 for upkeep. Moored alongside HMS Worcester, Cutty Sark continued to provide accommodation and training opportunities for merchant and Royal Naval cadets throughout World War Two.

London architects Grimshaw have completed the restoration of historic tea clipper the Cutty Sark.

Preserving Cutty Sark

As the college could no longer make use of the ship, 1951 saw Cutty Sark moored at Deptford as part of the Festival of Britain. Frank Carr, then Director of the National Maritime Museum, with the patronage of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, then established the Cutty Sark Preservation Society in 1953, to install the ship permanently in Greenwich as a memorial to the Merchant Navy and as an icon of Britain’s mercantile sailing past. Following major restorative work, Cutty Sark opened to visitors in 1957.

Cutty Sark today

Despite a fire in 2007, the vast majority of Cutty Sark’s original structure has endured, aided by the intensive conservation project from 2006-2012, which has ensured the ship’s ongoing survival for generations to come.

As we near Cutty Sark’s 150th anniversary in 2019, we look forward to celebrating and exploring this ship’s long and fascinating history, with a whole range of exciting events and activities throughout the coming year.  

Mast heights above deck in metres Tea rig Sydney Foretop 18.8 16.5 Topgallant 29.8 24.3 Royal 39.6 35.4 Maintop 19.8 16.9 Topgallant 31.9 22.8 Royal 36.3 Skysail 4.5 Mizzentop 17.0 14.8 Topgallant 25.7 22.8 Royal 33.2 31.7 Yard lengths in metres: Tea rig Sydney Fore course 23.8 21.0 Lowertopsail 20.7 16.8 Uppertopsail 19.5 14.6 Topgallant 14.6 11.5 Royal 11.6 9.4 Main course 23.8 21.6 Lowertopsail 20.7 18.5 Uppertopsail 19.5 16.8 Topgallant 14.6 14.2 Royal 11.6 10.4 Skysail 10.4 Mizzen course 18.3 17.4 Lowertopsail 16.5 13.4 Topgallant 11.9 11.0 Royal 10.1 8.2 Spanker 15.8 14.1

History Maiden Voyage: Feb. 16, 1870 London - Shanghai, China.

1870-1878: Used on the tea route from England to China.

1878-1895: Used for general commodities trade with no regular route.

1895: Sold to J. Ferreira & Co. Lisbon, Portugal for £2,100 and renamed Ferreira, " A Pequena Camisola ".

1895-1922: Used for general commodities trade between Portugal and various ports around the world.

1922: Sold to the Portuguese Companhia Nacional de Navegação and renamed Maria do Amparo.

1923: Sold to Wilfred Dowman for £3,750 and renamed Cutty Sark, ship returned to Falmouth, England for restoration.

1923-1938: Used at Falmouth as cadet training ship.

1938: Sold to Incorporated Thames Nautical Training College and moved to Greenhithe.

1938-1954: Used as auxiliary and training ship.

1954: Turned over to the Cutty Sark Society and moved to Greenwich and restored.

1954-1957: Under restoration at Greenwich.

1957: Opened to the public by HM Queen Elizabeth II.

May 21, 2007: While undergoing renovation the ship caught fire and was all but destroyed. There is currently an effort underway to rebuild the ship.

Apr. 25, 2012: Officially reopened by HM Queen Elizabeth II.

Apr. 26, 2012: Reopened to the public.

Courtesy: Royal Museums of Greenwich

The Cutty Sark Story

The History Channel