Cutty Sark. The last and most famous full-rigged tea clipper, launched in 1869 from Dumbarton (the figurehead's ‘cutty sark’=short chemise). Steamers using the recently opened Suez canal proved too competitive, but she plied the Australian wool trade until 1895. Now restored and rerigged, she lies at Greenwich.

A. S. Hargreaves

Cutty Sark the only survivor of the British tea clippers, launched in 1869 and now preserved as a museum ship at Greenwich, London.

The name comes from Robert Burns's Tam o' Shanter, a poem about a Scottish farmer chased by a young witch who wore only her ‘cutty sark’ (= short shift).