{{Infobox schip|
|Schip afbeelding=300px|Cutty Sark
|Schip titel=De Cutty Sark bij het Nationale Zeevaartmuseum in Greenwich
|Schip flag=
|Schip besteld=
|Scheepsbouwer=Scott & Linton
|Schip kiellegging=1869
|Schip tewaterlating=22 november 1869
|Schip gedoopt=
|Schip gekocht=
|Schip in de vaart genomen=
|Schip uit de vaart genomen=december 1954
|Schip in dienst=
|Schip uit dienst=
|Schip omgedoopt=
|Schip opnieuw geclassificeerd=
|Schip veroverd=
|Schip lot=museumschip
|Schip thuishaven=
|Schip deplacement=2133 ton
|Schip tonnenmaat=1935
|Schip TEU=
|Schip passagiers=
|Schip draagvermogen=
|Schip IMO=
|Schip vlag=Verenigd Koninkrijk
|Schip lengte=64,8 meter
|Schip breedte=11 meter
|Schip diepgang=6,4 meter
|Schip zomerdiepgang=
|Schip voortstuwing=windkracht
|Schip eigenaar=
|Schip charteraar=
|Schip type=
|Schip roepletters=
|Schip bereik=
|Schip duurzaamheid=
|Schip testdiepte=
|Schip boten=
|Schip capaciteit=
|Schip bemanning=
|Schip tijd om te activeren=
|Schip sensoren=
|Schip EW=
|Schip bewapening=
|Schip bepantsering=
|Schip vliegtuigen=
|Schip motto=
|Schip bijnaam=
|Schip verdiensten=
|Schip opmerkingen=afgebrand
|Schip teken=
|}}
De '''Cutty Sark''' is een theeklipper die werd gebouwd in Thermopylae, en andere theeklippers.

Net als vele andere schepen uit die tijd bestaat de Cutty Sark uit een smeedijzeren frame met daar overheen houten planken. Het schip is in totaal 64,8 meter lang en 11 meter breed, en weegt bijna 836 ton. Het schip werd gebouwd door de firma ''Scott & Linton'' voor Captain John "Jock" "White Hat" Willis. Op 22 november 1869 werd het schip te water gelaten.

Het schip legde zijn eerste reis af in een tijd van 69 dagen. Alle volgende reizen op een na werden binnen 75 tot 80 dagen voltooid. De grote concurrent, de ''Thermopylae'', slaagde daar maar één keer in.

In thee per zeilschip; het stoomschepen hadden de klippers ingehaald. Vanaf die tijd ging de Cutty Sark varen tussen Australië.

In 20e eeuw werd het schip nogmaals verkocht en van naam gewijzigd, tot in zeilrace die naar de theeklipper vernoemd zijn.

De Cutty Sark ligt in een Greenwich (Londen), en is voor het publiek toegankelijk.

{|
{{Infobox Ship Image
|Ship image=300px|Cutty Sark
|Ship caption=''Cutty Sark'' in dock, Greenwich - January 2005
}}
{{Infobox Ship Career
|Hide header=
|Ship country=UK
|Ship flag=60px|Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom
|Ship name=
|Ship namesake="Scottish witch Cutty Sark"
|Ship owner=
|Ship operator=
|Ship registry=
|Ship route=
|Ship ordered=1868
|Ship awarded=
|Ship builder=
|Ship original cost=
|Ship yard number=
|Ship way number=
|Ship laid down=1869<br>Scott & Linton shipyard, Dumbarton
|Ship launched=22 November 1869
|Ship sponsor=
|Ship christened=22 November 1869 by Mrs. Moodie
|Ship completed=
|Ship acquired=British Merchant Navy
|Ship commissioned=16 February 1870
|Ship recommissioned=
|Ship decommissioned=
|Ship maiden voyage= 
|Ship in service=February 1870
|Ship out of service=December 1954
|Ship renamed=Ferreira, Maria do Amparo, Cutty Sark
|Ship reclassified=
|Ship refit=
|Ship struck=
|Ship reinstated=
|Ship homeport=London 1870-1895, Lisbon 1895-1923, Falmouth 1923-1938, London
|Ship identification=
|Ship motto=Where there's a Willis a way
|Ship nickname=Pequena Camisola (port. 'little shirt')
|Ship honours=
|Ship honors=
|Ship captured=
|Ship fate=museum ship since 1954
|Ship status=
|Ship notes=designed by Hercules Linton
|Ship badge=
}}
{{Infobox Ship Characteristics
|Hide header=
|Header caption=
|Ship class=Tea Clipper
|Ship type=
|Ship tonnage=
|Ship displacement=2,100 tons (2,133.7 tonnes) at 20 ft (6.1 m) draught
|Ship tons burthen=
|Ship length=hull: 212.5 ft (64.77 m),<br>LOA: 280 ft (85.4 m)
|Ship beam=
|Ship height=
|Ship draught= loaded
|Ship draft=
|Ship depth=
|Ship hold depth=
|Ship decks=
|Ship deck clearance=
|Ship ramps=
|Ship ice class=
|Ship power=
|Ship propulsion=Sails
|Ship sail plan=
|Ship speed=17.15 kt (32 km/h)
|Ship range=
|Ship endurance=
|Ship test depth=
|Ship boats=
|Ship capacity=1,700 tons (1542 tonnes)
|Ship troops=
|Ship complement=28-35
|Ship crew=
|Ship time to activate=
|Ship sensors=
|Ship EW=
|Ship armament=
|Ship armour=
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|Ship aircraft=
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|Ship notes=
}}
|}
The '''''Cutty Sark''''' is a clipper ship.  Built in 1869, she served as a merchant vessel (the last clipper to be built for that purpose), and then as a training ship until being put on public display in 1954. She is preserved in dry dock at Greenwich in London, but was damaged in a fire on 21 May 2007 while undergoing extensive restoration.

== Etymology ==
The ship is named after the ''cutty sark'' (Scots: a short Tam o' Shanter''. She was wearing a linen ''cutty sark'' that she had been given as a child, therefore it was far too small for her. The erotic sight of her dancing in such a short undergarment caused Tam to cry out "Weel done, Cutty-sark", which subsequently became a well known idiom.

== History ==
thumb|left|''Cutty Sark'' sailing
She was designed by Hercules Linton and built in 1869 at Dumbarton, Scotland, by the firm of Scott & Linton, for Captain John "Jock" "White Hat" Willis; Scott & Linton was liquidated, and she was launched November 22 of that year by William Denny & Brothers.<ref>Dean & Kemp, ''Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea'' (Oxford U Press, 2005)</ref>

''Cutty Sark'' was destined for the tea trade, then an intensely competitive race across the globe from Thermopylae'' in 1872, both ships left Shanghai together on June 18, but two weeks later ''Cutty Sark'' lost her rudder after passing through the Sunda Strait, and arrived in London on October 18, a week after ''Thermopylae'', a total passage of 122 days. Her legendary reputation is supported by the fact that her captain chose to continue this race with an improvised rudder instead of putting into port for a replacement, yet was only beaten by one week.

In the end, clippers lost out to then used on the Captain Richard Woodget, she did very well, posting Australia-to-Britain times of as little as 67 days. Her best run, 360 nautical miles (666 km) in 24 hours (an average , was said to have been the fastest of any ship of her size.

In 1895 Willis sold her to the Portuguese firm Ferreira and she was renamed '''''Ferreira''''' after the firm, although her crews referred to her as '''''Pequena Camisola''''' ("little shirt", a straight translation of the Scots "cutty sark").<ref>[http://www.bymnews.com/new/content/view/8591/80/ BYM News], accessed 21 May 2007</ref> In 1916 she was dismasted off the Cape of Good Hope, sold, re-rigged in Cape Town as a barquentine, and renamed '''''Maria do Amparo'''''. In 1922 she was bought by Captain Wilfred Dowman, who restored her to her original appearance and used her as a stationary training ship. In 1954 she was moved to a custom-built dry-dock at Greenwich<ref name="Radio4-2007-05-22">BBC Radio 4 News, 6pm, 22 May 2007</ref>.

''Cutty Sark'' is also preserved in literature in Hart Crane's long poem "The Bridge" which was published in 1930.

== Museum ship ==
thumb|right|Cutty Sark in Greenwich, October 2003
The ''Cutty Sark'' was preserved as a museum ship and popular tourist attraction. She is located near the centre of Greenwich, in south-east London, close aboard the National Maritime Museum, the former Greenwich Hospital, and Greenwich Park. She is also a prominent landmark on the route of the London Marathon. She usually flies signal flags from her ensign halyard reading "JKWS", which is the code representing Cutty Sark in the International Code of Signals, introduced in 1857.

The ship is in the care of the Cutty Sark Trust, whose president, the Duke of Edinburgh, was instrumental in ensuring her preservation, when he set up the Cutty Sark Society in 1951. The Trust replaced the Society in 2000<ref name="Radio4-2007-05-22" /><ref name="DailyMail200705-23">Rebecca Camber, "''The £13 doubt over Cutty Sark Sprinklers''", Daily Mail, Grade I listed monument and is on the Buildings At Risk Register.

Cutty Sark station on the Docklands Light Railway is one minute's walk away, with connections to central London and the London Underground. Greenwich Pier is next to the ship, and is served by scheduled river boats from piers in central London. A tourist information office stands to the east of the ship.

=== Conservation and fire ===
thumb|250px|right|''Cutty Sark'' on fire.
On the morning of 21 May 2007 the ''Cutty Sark'', which had been closed and partly dismantled for conservation work, caught fire, and burned for several hours before the London Fire Brigade could bring the fire under control.  Initial reports indicated that the damage was extensive, with most of the wooden structure in the centre having been lost.<ref name=BBC_News_Story1>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6675381.stm BBC News Report on the Fire</ref>

In an interview the next day, Richard Doughty, the chief executive of the Cutty Sark Trust revealed that at least half of the "fabric" (timbers, etc) of the ship had not been on site as it had been removed during the preservation work. Doughty expressed that the trust was most worried about the state of iron framework to which the fabric was attached.<ref name=BBC_News_Story1/> He did not know how much more the ship would cost to restore, but estimated it at an additional £5–10 million, bringing the total cost of the ship's restoration to £30–35 million.<ref>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/22/nsark22.xml Cutty Sark at The Daily Telegraph</ref>

The cause of the fire is as yet unconfirmed. After initial analysis of the CCTV footage of the area suggested the possibility of arson, further investigation over the following days by Scotland Yard failed to find conclusive proof that the fire was set deliberately.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6685489.stm Cutty Sark fire remains a mystery]</ref> A full report is due to be released in the summer of 2008.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/04/05/sm_cuttysark05.xml Cutty Sark: refit for purpose]</ref>

Aerial video footage showed extensive damage, but seemed to indicate that the ship had not been destroyed in its entirety. A fire officer present at the scene said in a BBC interview that when they arrived, there had been "a well-developed fire throughout the ship". The bow section looked to be relatively unscathed and the stern also appeared to have survived without major damage. The fire seemed to have been concentrated in the centre of the ship.<ref name=Sky_News_Footage>http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,30000-1266673,00.html Sky's Aerial Footage of the blaze site</ref> The chairman of Cutty Sark Enterprises said after inspecting the site: "The decks are unsalvageable but around 50% of the planking had already been removed; however, the damage is not as bad as originally expected." 

As part of the restoration work planned before the fire, it was proposed that the ship be raised three metres, to allow the construction of a state of the art museum space beneath. This would allow visitors to view her from below.<ref>[http://www.cuttysark.org.uk/index.cfm?fa=contentGeneric.afbkghkcdkkgoofb Cutty Sark - Project 2005-2010 > Conservation Project Background<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> 

For a long time, there had been growing criticism of the policies of the Cutty Sark Trust and its stance that the most important thing was to preserve as much as possible of the original fabric. The fire damage has been put forth as a reason for the Cutty Sark to be rebuilt in a manner that would allow her to put to sea again by proponents of the idea.<ref>[http://www.bymnews.com/may/cutty-sark.html BYM News May Cutty Sark<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>  However, the Cutty Sark Trust have found that less than 5% of the original fabric was lost in the fire, as the decks which were destroyed were non-original additions.  There are currently two petitions to the UK Prime Minister, one for funds to restore the ship,<ref>[http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/cuttysark/ Petition for funds for restoration]</ref> and the other for funds to restore the ship into commission as a sail training vessel.<ref>[http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/TallShip/ Petition for funds for restoration as a working sail training vessel]</ref> 

In addition to explaining how and why the ship is being saved, the exhibition features a new film presentation, a re-creation of the master's saloon, and interactive exhibits about the project. Live webcam views of the conservation work allow the visitor to see remotely the work being carried out on the ship.

The design for the renovation project by Youmeheshe architects with Grimshaw architects and Buro Happold engineers involves raising the ship out of her dry berth using a Kevlar web, allowing visitors to pass under the hull.