CUTTY SARK TO RESUME.

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 16, 19 January 1924, Page 24

CUTTY SARK TO RESUME.

It was annpunced recently in a cablegram that the famous old clipper Cutty Sark is to be refitted a»d sent to sea as a training ship. What thrills of joy (writes "Bob Backstay") go coursing through the veins of the shellbacks all the world over at this news. British and foreign alike, for the reason that she was the most noted flier of her day. She-is only a HU!o ship, which used to carry genera! cargo and passengers, -making, passages from London to Sydney in 70 to 80 days, under command of Car-fain Crombie—the proudest of all the "windjammer skippers of his period. Of composite built, 972 tons gross, the Cutty Sark was launched from Scott, and Linton's yard, Dumbarton, in 1869. She is 212 ft long, 36ft in beam, with a depth of 21ft, and oue.of the prettiest vessels that ever rode the seas. . She looked different to the usual clipper. Cheeky and rakish—a long jib-boom and all the other attributes ot a heeler. ■ It used to be said thai "Old Man" Crombie never shortened sail from the time he, left port until the tug took hold of him at the end of the voyage. That, of course, was professional jealousy, although it .was a fact that he would "carry on" until the last minute. The Cutty Sark has changed her colours a few times since the halcyon days o£ "the fleets of the golden fleece," and has been known 'as the Mario do Amparo and the Ferreira, but she survived the rough treatment of the foreigners, and is once more under the good old flag- she proudly carried in the day o£ her youth. The •■ cablegram stated that her hull is as good as ever—a not uncommon feature of the ships that were built in the days of yore. ; The boys -who arc now to go to sea in her to learn the art of sailoring will have all the great traditions of the old mercantile marine to live up to, and when their time is up will be the proud possessors -of "square-rigged" certificates. It is a good ticket to hold, for a man who serves.his time in sail-knows a good deal more about the sea than one who receives his training in a steamer.