Cutty Sark, Greenwich, London

One of the last-built tea clippers, built on the river Clyde (Glasgow, Scotland) in 1870.  The clippers transported tea from China to Britain.

Since 1954 the Cutty Sark has been a museum ship, located in dry dock in Greenwich.


The unusual name?  This is taken from Robert Burn's poem Tam O'Shanter, and refers to the short nightdress of the witch Nannie, one of the characters in the poem - Nannie also appears as the ship's figurehead, in appropriate dress.  

Here is the extract from the poem, written in 18th century Scots:

But Tam kend what was what fu' brawlie:
There was ae winsome wench and waulie, 
That night enlisted in the core, 
Lang after ken'd on Carrick shore; 
(For mony a beast to dead she shot, 
And perish'd mony a bonie boat, 
And shook baith meikle corn and bear, 
And kept the country-side in fear.) 
Her cutty-sark, o' Paisley harn 
That while a lassie she had worn, 
In longitude tho' sorely scanty, 
It was her best, and she was vauntie,- 
Ah! little ken'd thy reverend grannie, 
That sark she coft for he wee Nannie, 
Wi' twa pund Scots, ('twas a' her riches), 
Wad ever grac'd a dance of witches!


Not so easy, is it?