FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Cutty Sark is a British clipper ship. Built on the River Leven, Dumbarton, Scotland in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of design development for this type of vessel, which halted as steamships took over their routes. She was named for the fictional witch, Cutty-sark.

After the big improvement in the fuel efficiency of steamships in 1866, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 gave them a shorter route to China, so Cutty Sark spent only a few years on the tea trade before turning to the trade in wool from Australia, where she held the record time to Britain for ten years. Continuing improvements in steam technology meant that gradually steamships also came to dominate the longer sailing route to Australia, and the ship was sold to the Portuguese company Ferreira and Co. in 1895 and renamed Ferreira. She continued as a cargo ship until purchased in 1922 by retired sea captain Wilfred Dowman, who used her as a training ship operating from Falmouth, Cornwall. After his death, Cutty Sark was transferred to the Thames Nautical Training College, Greenhithe in 1938 where she became an auxiliary cadet training ship alongside HMS Worcester. By 1954, she had ceased to be useful as a cadet ship and was transferred to permanent dry dock at Greenwich, London, for public display.

Cutty Sark is listed by National Historic Ships as part of the National Historic Fleet (the nautical equivalent of a Grade 1 Listed Building). She is one of only three remaining original composite construction (wooden hull on an iron frame) clipper ships from the nineteenth century in part or whole, the others being the City of Adelaide, which arrived in Port Adelaide, South Australia on 3 February 2014 for preservation, and the beached skeleton of Ambassador of 1869 near Punta Arenas, Chile.

The ship has been damaged by fire twice in recent years, first on 21 May 2007 while undergoing conservation. She was restored and was reopened to the public on 25 April 2012. Funders for the Cutty Sark conservation project include: the Heritage Lottery Fund, the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Sammy Ofer Foundation, Greenwich Council, Greater London Authority, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Berry Brothers & Rudd, Michael Edwards, Alisher Usmanov.

On 19 October 2014 she was damaged in a smaller fire.

Cutty Sark whisky derives its name from the ship. An image of the clipper appears on the label, and the maker formerly sponsored the Cutty Sark Tall Ships Race. The ship also inspired the name of the Saunders Roe Cutty Sark flying boat.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

What is the process for amending the U.S. Constitution?

A proposed amendment must pass Congress with the support of 67 percent of both the House and the Senate. Then it is referred to the states, where each state legislature must pass it. (Generally, the 67 percent rule applies there as well.) When 75 percent of the states have passed the amendment, the Constitution is altered. The founders of our country designed the system to be cumbersome so that it would be very difficult to change the original document and to ensure agreement among the majority of citizens.

Advice of the Day

It is unlucky to bring an umbrella aboard ship.

Home Hint of the Day

Old whitewash, a liquid plaster made from slaked lime, is best removed with a combination of vinegar and elbow grease. Brush on the vinegar, then scrape with a putty knife.

Word of the Day

Bluey

A bushman’s blanket; — named from its color, or a bushman’s bundle; a swag; — so called because a blanket is sometimes used as the outside covering.

Puzzle of the Day

When may a chair be said to dislike you?

When it cannot bear you.

Born

• René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle (explorer) – 1643
• William Evans (Irish-born Canadian agronomist) – 1786
• George Eliot (author) – 1819
• Charles de Gaulle (French general, writer, & statesman) – 1890
• Wiley Post (first pilot to fly solo around the world) – 1898
• Rodney Dangerfield (comedian & actor) – 1921
• Geraldine Page (actress) – 1924
• Gunther Schuller (composer) – 1925
• Robert Vaughn (actor) – 1932
• Terry Gilliam (actor) – 1940
• Billie Jean King (tennis player) – 1943
• Jamie Lee Curtis (actress) – 1958
• Mark Ruffalo (actor) – 1967
• Boris Becker (tennis player) – 1967
• Scarlett Johansson (actress) – 1984

Died

• Blackbeard (pirate) – 1718
• George W. G. Ferris Jr. (inventor of the Ferris wheel) – 1896
• Jack London (writer) – 1916
• C.S. Lewis (author) – 1963
• John F. Kennedy (35th U.S. president) – 1963
• Mae West (actress) – 1980
• Henry Hampton (documentary filmmaker) – 1998
• Mary Kay Ash (entrepreneur) – 2001

Events

• British clipper Cutty Sark launched– 1869
• Actress Lillian Russell debuted at Tony Pastor’s Theatre, New York City– 1880
• Statue of Liberty began role as first U.S. lighthouse to use electricity– 1886
• National Hockey League established at Montreal– 1917
• Humane Society of the United States founded– 1954
• President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, and Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th U.S. president– 1963
• Margaret Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom– 1990
• Race car driver Jimmie Johnson set a NASCAR record by winning his fourth consecutive championship– 2009

Weather

• The first flakes of a storm that left 56 inches of snow in Randolph, New Hampshire, began falling– 1943
• Erie, Pennsylvania, received 26 inches of snow– 1956
• A storm caused a deadly mudslide in Prince Rupert, British Columbia– 1957
• Santa Ana winds from Oxnard to San Diego and inland parts of southern California made airborne rubble a hazard– 1957

COURTESY www.almanac.com