'Cutty Sark & The Great Clippers' / Nautical Engineering Documentary 

I was lucky enough to visit The cutty Sark a couple years ago.... I still have my Cutty Sark crew mug I bought there, I drink tea in it everyday :-)

One of the best Doc's that i've seen in a while. I love that old footage, this is a "Top of the Line" Doc, I saw the "Tall ships" in 76 as they approached Boston harbor and the "City of Sin", at first, all you could see was a few topsails then more topsails and more and more until they filled the entire horizon and still, you couldn't see any BOATS! it took at least a half hour before you could. It was beautiful. Wild should wild remain.

My Dad was an aerospace engineer at Honeywell. On his lunch breaks he would work on a plastic model of the Cutty Sark. Very meticulously hand tying the rat lines, painting faces on figures that were only three quarters of an inch tall. Making cloth sails instead of using the plastic sails molded into shape by some mold maker. After seventeen years of designing and working the kinks out of re-entry control systems for ICBM's, the Apollo space program, and other military projects, Honeywell fired him. He never really finished the Sark because he had to try to reinvent his career and had no time or need for the distraction of working with his hands.

Almost 60 years ago I lived in Blackheath, just above Greenwhich were the Cutty Sark was in dry dock. As kids we went on it many, many times and also saw the Gypsy Moth beside it. This brought back great memories for me, and I learned a ton more about its history. Thanks for putting this together, well done.

I have fond memories of visiting this ship with my dad in Greenwich in the 80s

A great account of American sailing ships (clippers included) was written by Carl Cutler. It is a chronological discussion of ship building techniques from about 1760 - 1860. It details the rivalry of competition between the various builders and the results of numerous races. It mentions the races between US and British ships in the tea trade. I recommend it to anyone who has the time to read it.Titled "Greyhounds of the Sea".

Around South America and the Falkland Islands are many clipper hulls that failed the Horn, still there, and beaches covered in some of their cargoes. Some hulls still afloat.

Strange, I don't see comments from people without culture, arrogant and primitive. How beautiful it is to communicate between real Westerners😃

A wonderfully romantic presentation of the golden age of the Clipper Ships, bravo!

My claim to fame is ‘I trained on the Cutty Sark’. The fact that she rested on concrete at Greenwich and it was a navigation class with the Frobisher Institute, I do not disclose.

Always and forever, my favorite sailing ship. May she sail forever in our imaginations!

The Cutty Sark "once sailed 2,163 nautical miles in six days, for an average speed of just over 15 knots." The clippers on a good day averaged 10-11 knots. (11.5 to 13 mph 18.5 - 20 km/h)). "99 days" to do the 14,000 m route is an average of 5.9 knots. Most of the main clipper routes were east to west, this is because the trade winds influenced by the Coriolis effect go north of the Equator, north east to west, and south of it, south east to west. (I never thought about this until I learned to sail and started looking at routes. My boat is 45' sails easy at 5-7 knots, under power 6 knots, 1 gallon/hour, so range 900 nMiles before I'd need to refuel. At 6.7 knots fuel consumption doubles so range of only 450 nMiles. 75 hours verses 67 hours, double the fuel cost for a ten percent gain in time. Same with the wind. A lot more wind for a sailboat is not a lot more speed, but it is a lot more force and wear on the sails and rigging. )

The best video on RU-vid is from a man who filmed his journey on a massive sailing cargo ship sailing from Germany around South America and up to Chile. He narrated his film and someone converted it to digital and posted it on RU-vid. The things he describes and shows are a fascinating look into life at sea for sailors in the early 1900s, just before steam replaced sail power. Describing the Captain's dog and how he'd bite at slow men, showing the captain cutting sailors hair, so many little things. It's the best video on RU-vid, this video being a close 2nd!

Seven clippers had a moonraker sail, so rare the word rarely even makes it into dictionaries.

What a time of skill, courage and daring. Thanks for making this film

You go to sea in a boat you don't love, she will shake you off like the changing of the worlds.

To put these brilliant feats of engineering into perspective, although a windjammer rather than a clipper, the largest sail powered cargo ship called the Preußen crashed because a coastal steam ship doing a channel crossing saw her on the horizon, thought she was a slow sailing ship, and started crossing her bow. Preußen was actually travelling at 16 Knots - and that wasn't even full sail! Sadly, it led to the loss of Preußen as she lost her fore topmast and bowsprit (she was wrecked in ensuing storms as she couldn't manoeuvre) and the steamer was heavily damaged. But it just goes to prove the efficiency and speed of these huge ships - not much smaller than coastal bulk carriers today.

A splendid documentary. I found Moshulu on Amsterdam, in 1970. I was on SS Chusan, in the Band at the time. I, the ships photographer, and our Drummer climbed on board. I always carried, " Eric Newby's Last Grain Race on my travels. I would have loved to have met him.

I can imagine seeing any of these ships under sail with “royals”, must have been breathtakingly stunning.

Wow! The tea races!

43:30 Bless you ol boy paying respect to who filled your belly..... #cutty ⚓❤️🦘🙏❤️🙌

Wonderful video! Thank you so much for showing it!

Brilliant film, thanks for sharing 👍

Purely inspirational. Oh the. Human spirit

I love sailing vessels of all kinds, but clipper ships - oh, my goodness! I believe they're the most beautiful objects EVER made by humans.

Wow, what a wonderful job on this. Thank you!

The book "Two Years Before the Mast" by Richard Henry Dana is set earlier than this in the 19th century. But it is an enchanting tale of the voyage from Boston to California, and back again. It is well before the California Gold Rush and I recommend it to all who enjoyed this video about clipper ships.

Well done ! Thank you :)

Brilliant video. What sparked my interest was one of my ancestors was Captain of an East Indiaman in the late 18th century, these ships are at the end of his journey. Starting with the Portuguese explorers such as Vasco De Gama and Bartholomeum Diaz opening up long distance sea travel. All fascinating stuff, history that massively helped the prosperity of Europe and the whole world.

...the art of building and racing those magnificent clippers in order to enjoy the art of tea drinking." In France the celebrated in a rather similar way the art of exporting and sipping the "Primeur" wine.

All ya killing it into the forties with sail... Huzzah!!

I'm an engineer and a sailor. A sail is a vertical wing. The top side of an airplane wing is the same as the back side of a sail. And like an airplane wing, there's a low pressure system above the wing, or on the back side of the sail. When a sailboat is beating to windward, between the low pressure system on the back side of the sail, and the keel preventing the boat from moving downwind, that low pressure system is actually sucking the sailboat forward from the back side of the sail, pretty crazy! That's not what's happening when going downwind though, that's just wind pushing on the sails. And that's why boats can go faster on a close reach than they can going straight downwind. Sailboats and sailing are magical. It's pure magic how a huge heavy boat can go so fast with just sails.

So fascinating ❤

I've been through two typhoons in the South China Sea on an LST (USS Cayuga LST 1186). I can't imagine going through that on a wooden ship with canvas engines.

A Scot I knew, Stewart, in Northern Territory of Australia in 1970, (I think) sailed on Endeavor II and was ship wrecked off of New Zealand. He then wrote that he managed to get on a crew of a merchant ship bound back for UK. Another friend told me that Stewart managed to go from Australia back to UK for $38 which would have fit his personality.

The Roaring Fourties have a reputation. If you have no idea how a storm looks like in the Fourties, I can tell you this. Henk de Velde is a Dutch catamaran sailor, who did a number of attempts to break the world record around the world singlehanded. And he happened to be professional captain. That is important, for in one of his books he wrote about a terrible storm. Braking waves of an enormous height, not just local, but all the way to the horizon, in all directions. When men like De Velde admit that this was scary, a couple of days steering by hand, no longer relying on the excellent autopilots, you bet the Roaring Fourties or even the Furious Fifties can be very very dangerous. Waves can go around the world without any coast breaking them down. Brrrrrr.

I love Cutty Sark! Especially by the case. 🤣🤣🥃👍

As a Greenwich resident, I found this very interesting given I spent so much time visiting the "Cutty Sark" as a kid.

In the 1970s, a 3 foot model of mine was seeing for $200.00 The Sark has a history book that came in the kit...all for only $25.00 "She" was grand with HER copper clad Hull! Scotch and Bourbon were HER cargos. Gentlemen: I'm 66...and I've been wanting to get back into the business since the 1980s. The x-acto kits are no longer $12.00 The paints are very difficult to purchase. I learned wood-working. And basic electricity. Lit Cabinets, gold-leaf for Her Name Plate. Michigan and her being The Great Lake State...I know Ships and Shipping. Now? I'd "model-up" for $3,000. As soon as I complete two projects...I can retire making models again. You inspired me...but, seeing the mighty Clipper again?...it's a done deal. (It did'nt take much...I never DID let go. She was always there.) ty

I wish that, I'd sailed the darkened seas, On a great big Clipper ship, Going from this land here to that, Oh, in a sailor's suit and cap; Away from the big city, Where a man cannot be free, Of all of the evils of this town, And of himself and those around. Oh, and i guess that, I just don't know. (From "Heroin", by the The Velvet Underground)

Ahh When men were men. Done a bit of sailing, Deckhanding, steamships Etc... one of if not the best times of my youth, ports of call, Santo Domingo, Curaçao, Barbados, Aruba, Bonaire, St Vincent. Kudos to all The Great Clippers and Men of these ships.

that was good info

excellent content

Greenwich and the Museum - walked between the two long rows of Bow Spirits! Truly Memorable!

New subscriber here, I love things of this sort, please keep up the good work !!!

The great era of sailing, here wooden ships and iron men ruled the waves. A time or great adventures and incredible courage.

The ship sinking at 8:34 appears to be the topsail schooner SMS Ayesha, the ship commandeered by the landing party of the German cruiser SMS Emden when the Emden was sunk by HMAS Sydney in WWI. The journey of the landing party is one of the great sagas of WWI.

I built a large model of the Thermopylae when I was a kid (early 1960s)

So let's lift our glasses to the captains and crews of the Cutty Sark! Cheers!

Have a look for capt Wallace cutty sark. He was my father's mother's brother. Jumped over board off java after getting becalmed. that was all the story I was told as a boy. The whole story is much more. The first mate, a bully be all accounts, murdered one of the deck hands and was in the brig but was let go by Wallace. I would love to read the captains log from that voyage. Ate such things a matter of record somewhere.

That was so exciting ! What tame, dull lives we lead nowadays, compared to the lives lived by those sailors.

I have no fear of heights. It's more the depth that I don't like.. ;-) Thank you very much for sharing this wonderful vid, appreciate it a lot 👍 Greets from the Netherlands 🇳🇱, T.

I read this book by eric newby, it is one of the most suspensefull real life accounts I ever read

This was the best and hardest model that I put together as a teen.

Loved to sail!!!…..Nothing more said……

My family tree shows that I had two GT GT GT Grandfathers who sailed on the Cutty Sark, one was the cook George Cunningham and the other Captain Woodgate, I have never visited the Ship Yet I am now 77 years of age and I would like to go one day

The Cutty Sark isn't the only extant clipper ship from that era. The Moshula remains docked in Philadelphia. It houses museum areas and a fine restaurant.

The fastest clipper did an average of 6.6 knots per hour in the tea race. Any ole steamship does an average of 8 to 16 knots. Modern cruise ships routinely do 20 to 23 knots per hour. The doldrums, prevailing headwinds, and the necessity to tack (sail zigzaggingly) significantly reduced the average.

I learnt a much shorter version of this story on a school trip to see the cutty sark. I was not expecting much from this documentary but added a lot to what I learned 55 years ago.

My Grandfather was born in the Cutty Sark age, joined the Navy at 13, (Two years before he was eligible.) served 42 years before he was retired. He, and his best mate (Dusty) had houses built, side by side, not far from HMS Ganges, their navy training school, in Shotley. They named their houses Cutty Sark, and Miranda. Miranda was a sister ship to the Cutty Sark. He had three ambitions, to own his own car, his own house, and to live to Threescore and Ten! He achieved all three, and died a few months after his 70th birthday. During his life in the Navy, his diet contained a lot of salted meat, as there was no refrigeration, and this made him very sick in his old age. Although when he joined the Navy, steam ships were very common, the recruits were trained on tall sails as well. The mast he trained on is still visible in the now derelict training school, here; www.google.com/maps/@51.9577972,1.2700634,3a,55.8y,91.89h,90.63t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHSluQKDSIgGlb2ayV0H_Vw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 There's a museum nearby dedicated to the school, here; www.google.com/maps/@51.9565798,1.2749111,3a,51.6y,55.57h,86.19t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s3BaMwBc-PT0dx7GzzgU8Uw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Only the administrative buildings, and the Officers quarters remain. The recruits quarters were wooden huts, fell apart, and long ago demolished. Here's a picture of the mast in use; www.google.com/maps/place/HMS+Ganges+Association+Museum/@51.9567242,1.2753746,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipMR3zcfbqeSsXTbP6YKy-HwtPH6AeGbp4oY2Zpf!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMR3zcfbqeSsXTbP6YKy-HwtPH6AeGbp4oY2Zpf%3Dw203-h118-k-no!7i1260!8i734!4m15!1m8!3m7!1s0x47d975d38f3a6b15:0xedbd99f20692854e!2sShotley,+Ipswich+IP9+1PB,+UK!3b1!8m2!3d51.969615!4d1.253411!16zL20vMGZqN3lm!3m5!1s0x47d975a1b9473a61:0x3b86b7a7c8e36ba9!8m2!3d51.9567242!4d1.2753746!16s%2Fg%2F1v8kzwkc# The senior man of each entry had to stand on the very top position on their pass-out ceremony. .

A good book on clipper ships is Sam Jefferson’s clipper ships and the golden age of sail. It’s the only clipper ship book I need to study them

I'm from Boston, we know all about tea.😉

Newby’s book is on my shelf. Still a great read. For a great first hand video lecture, check out Irving Johnson’s account of a voyage on Peking in, I think, 1924.

Did Clavell's Asian Saga send anyone else here? Just imagine the story he could have weaved with this tea clipper history providing the wind. Ah, to read how Tess and Gornt humbled Brock and his whelp . . .

"The Cutty Sark was one of the fastest sailing ships that has ever been built. The only other ship to match her was the Thermopylae. Both these ships set out from Shanghai on June 18th, 1872 on an exciting race to England. This race, which went on for exactly four months, was the last of is kind. It marked the end of the great tradition of ships with sails and beginning of a new era. " From my 50 years old English textbook "new concept English".😀

Would have liked more about the fire and the restoration and the current appearance

My gosh!!!

One third of the way through, and barely a mention of the TEA CHEST. An invention Marvel of shipping. Nice history but no mention of the liqueur in her bilges? Around 50 minutes it is padded by a start over.

Apart from a brief mention of entire ships going missing in storms, there are many statements in the narration about how dangerous it was being aloft in a Clipper ship. Oddly, not one report of the death of a sailor falling from the rigging. It's hard to believe that in nearly a century no sailors were killed in this fashion; did they not report such accidents? There's something amiss here.

Her home port was Newport RI way back in early 70s...

If this compares to the Cutty Sark model kit I crafted together I should be able to pass the nautical captains exams of mast riggings,sails,stays and features recognized by the master of command,I failed in Puerto Rico,Cuba,Spain,France and Germany to pass that Admiralty level of knowlege,wish to try again for GP.INDIANA U.S.A.2023

Aye ! When ships were made of wood and men were made of steel !

They foundv a clipper ship on the bottom of the indian ocean when looking for Malaysia Airliner. Just from the echo sound you could tell what she was.

~Amazing!~

The crew did not receive good pay or food fit to eat . Also their lives had little value. The captain ruled over them as a king . They would not take down the sails until it was absolutely necessary, with no regard to crew safety . Being up high in the sails in a storm was scary. Four hours on and off with full crew pressed into service frequently.

Excellent documentary, just consider this ,no GPS, no digital navigational systems, no computers, no radio or satellite communications, no Autocad or 3d printers, and yet look at all that they achieved.

Great topic, some great content. One negative point: seems like some of the material or chronology is repeated to stretch this documentary into filling a larger time-slot than it was meant for.

Oh, heavens, I once took a summer vacation as one of the amateur "crew" of a schooner that had been built to catch fish, and was now a vessel intended for the 'educational' entertainment of ourselves. We did learn a lot. But it would take sterner stuff for me to climb up and out to reef a skysail on a clipper! Alas, steamships ousted the Tall Ships. What level of inattention allows people to think anything other than nuclear can oust coal and fossil hydrocarbons? Note that "natural gas" is mostly methane, whose formula can be called Carbon TetraHydride.

Lovely video 📹 ❤

The vessel mentioned in the first few minutes is now a restaurant docked in Philadelphia.

The latter day clippers were off keel They became more and more off keel over the decades. They became death traps the sailors jumped at the first port. 1800 was about the last seaworthy design for clippers. If they could have built on keel they would have seen the better speed and rudder control of the on keel design.

Gee, rudder problems at sea are the worst thing that can happen. Even on a small yacht. That is why rudders are always very strong, and preferably placed out of harms way. Running aground? Many rudders will survive! And when things go wrong, improvising a jury rudder is not easy. You might need three strong men handling it. You will probably need to reduce your sail surface, which means you will sail slower. Do you have enough food onboard, going go the nearby port? Do you see the implications?

Great video. I didn't hear any mention of the clipper's original purpose: running opium.

It is absolutely criminal what's been done to the Sark, criminal. Those concerned should be strung up to a yard or the dock flooded and keelhauled.

I have never heard anyone in my 50+ years of participation in this field (including crewing on a square-rigger myself) compare a clipper ship with the schooner type called a Baltimore clipper. They are totally different kinds of rigs and very different in size, originated in different eras, and sailed different seas carrying different kinds of cargoes. While the short clips of seaman interviews are about priceless, the writing of this thing is pathetic to an extreme. Goddamned 21st century television writers, be damned !

I think sailing around Cape Horn westbound is a much greater challenge than Eastbound.

Real good story. The crossover of time periods had me confused. Not exactly chronological.

top speeds of the clippers were faster than our modern day shipping by a large margin.

Sailboat Race (Definition): Any two sailboats on parallel courses ;)

The 1st round the world race of sail boats.

my fist ship was the original TS Royalist back in the early 70's I can tell you ther's nothing romantic about sailing on a ship in a storm where you never get warm or dry, and these guys on the clippers knew all about that, so no not romantic

I wonder how many ships were lost to rogue waves

And a great blended Scotch too.

Crime about Thermopylae

Wasn’t Moshulu the ship that transported a young Vito Corleone to America in The Godfather Part II? I think it was.

Can someone please inlighten me what is the difference between tea coming on the first and second ship? First ship tea tasted better???

I wonder if the "Clipper Captain Campbell" and "Malcolm Campbell of jet powered Hydroplane racing fame"... world fastest ( 141+ MPH ) on water at the moment of his death, ...are they related?

That ship is now a restaurant in Philladelphia

Would the average crew on an average cargo ship of today be able to seamlessly transition to this cargo vessel? They're 'sailors'?, right?

Why is the Bluenose not mentioned