1.
DSV Alvin
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Alvin is a manned deep-ocean research submersible owned by the United States Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The vehicle was built by General Mills Electronics Group in Minneapolis, named to honor the prime mover and creative inspiration for the vehicle, Allyn Vine, Alvin was commissioned on 5 June 1964. The submersible is launched from the deep submergence support vessel RV Atlantis, Research conducted by Alvin has been featured in nearly 2,000 scientific papers. Alvin was designed as a replacement for bathyscaphes and other less maneuverable oceanographic vehicles and its more nimble design was made possible in part by the development of syntactic foam, which is buoyant and yet strong enough to serve as a structural material at great depths. It allows for two scientists and one pilot to dive for up to nine hours at 4,500 meters, the submersible features two robotic arms and can be fitted with mission-specific sampling and experimental gear. The plug hatch of the vessel is 0.48 m in diameter and somewhat thicker than the 2-inch thick titanium pressure hull. In an emergency, if Alvin were stuck underwater with occupants inside, the titanium sphere would then rise to the surface uncontrolled. Harold E. Froehlich was one of the designers of the Alvin. Alvin, first of its class of deep submergence vehicle, was built to dive to 2,440 meters. Each of the Alvin-class DSVs have different depth capabilities, however Alvin is the only one seconded to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with the others staying with the United States Navy. Alvins first deep sea tests took place off Andros Island, the Bahamas, on 20 July 1965 Alvin made its first 6, 000-foot manned dive for the Navy to obtain certification. On 17 March 1966, Alvin was used to locate a submerged 1. 45-megaton hydrogen bomb lost in a United States Air Force midair accident over Palomares, the bomb, found resting nearly 910 m deep, was raised intact on 7 April. On 6 July 1967, the Alvin was attacked by a swordfish during dive 202, the swordfish became trapped in the Alvins skin, and the Alvin was forced to make an emergency surface. The attack took place at 2,000 feet below the surface, the fish was recovered at the surface and cooked for dinner. Lulu, a vessel created from a pair of decommissioned U. S. Navy pontoon boats with a structure added on, was lowering Alvin over the side when two steel cables snapped. There were three crew members aboard Alvin at the time, and the hatch was open, situated between the pontoons with no deck underneath, Alvin hit the water and rapidly began to sink. Severe weather prevented the recovery of Alvin throughout late 1968, Alvin was found to be upright and appeared intact except for damage to the stern. It was decided to attempt recovery, although no object of Alvins size had ever recovered from a depth of 5,000 feet
2.
Mystic, Connecticut
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Mystic is a village and census-designated place in New London County, Connecticut, in the United States. The population was 4,205 at the 2010 census, Mystic has no independent government because it is not a legally recognized municipality in the state of Connecticut. Rather, Mystic is located within the towns of Groton and Stonington, the village is located on the Mystic River, which flows into Long Island Sound, providing access to the sea. The Mystic River Bascule Bridge crosses the river in the center of the village, according to the Mystic River Historical Society, the name Mystic is derived from the Pequot term missi-tuk, describing a large river whose waters are driven into waves by tides or wind. Before the 17th century, the indigenous Pequot people lived in this portion of southeastern Connecticut, the Pequots built their first village overlooking the western bank of the Mystic River, which they called the Siccanemos. The only written records describe this village as existing in 1637 and they also had supremacy over some of the most strategically located terrain. To the northwest, the Five Nations of the Iroquois dominated the land linked by the Great Lakes, the Pequots were settled just distant enough to be secure from any danger that the Iroquois posed. In 1632, the Dutch established a trading post at Good Hope, near present-day Armsmear in Hartford, the Dutch post attracted additional traders to the Pequot territory whom the Pequots could not control, raising apprehension between the two villages. This destabilized the Pequots control of fur and wampum sources, in 1634, hostilities escalated between the Pequot and Narragansett tribes. In revenge for this attack, the Dutch captured and seized Tatobem, Pequots uppermost chief, the ransom was paid immediately, but Tatobem was executed anyway, they retaliated by killing an Englishman named John Stone at the Connecticut River. There are many assumptions to why Stone was chosen in retribution, some historians say that, while trading on shore, Stone kidnapped a handful of Pequots with intentions to sell them into slavery, and was beaten and slaughtered by their rescuers. The Massachusetts Bay colony interpreted the killing of Stone as a declaration of war, in October 1634, Pequot delegates took a trip to Massachusetts Bay to guarantee the colonists that they had not intended nor planned to go to war with the English. They took full blame for Stones death, and offered Governor Roger Ludlow payment for his death, the Massachusetts Bay colonists refused to accept the payment as justice for Stones death. The Pequot delegation seemed to agree to the settlement and returned home, tensions increased among local Indian tribes, especially towards the Pequot. In 1636, John Oldham was murdered in his boat off Block Island, the murderers were Block Islanders, a branch of Narragansetts, however, they escaped capture and were given safe haven by the Pequots. Uncas and Wequash also joined the fight, bringing seventy of his own men, Mason set fire to eighty homes, killing 600–700 Pequots. Seven were taken captive and seven escaped, two Englishmen were killed, while 20-40 were wounded. Captain John Underhill, one of the English commanders, documents the event in his journal Newes from America, Down fell men, women and those that scaped us, fell into the hands of the Indians that were in the rear of us
3.
Deep-submergence rescue vehicle
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A Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle is a type of Deep Submergence Vehicle used for rescue of downed submarines and clandestine missions. While DSRV is the term most often used by the United States Navy other nations have different designations for their vehicles, ASRV Remora was the Australian navys DSRV. It is based on a bell design. The Peoples Republic of China has three Dajiang class submarine rescue ships, each ship is equipped with two DSRV. The lead ship of the Dajiang class is the Changxingdao, france, Norway and the UK share the NATO Submarine Rescue System programme. Swedish Navy has submarine rescue ship HMS Belos which can carry Swedish submarine rescue vessel URF as well as British LR5, the submarine, modified as deployable about in year 2010, operates from the mother ship Anteo. SRV-300 replace MSM-1S/USEL, build by Cantieri Navali Breda, launched on 11.11.1978,13,2 t displacement, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force operate two DSRVs with dedicated mother ships. Chiyoda – Chiyoda Chihaya – Chihaya, the Korean navy operates a submarine rescue ship called Cheong Haejin. It has a mother ship. The model is based on a modified British design, russia is believed to have one vessel of the Bester class and five of the Priz class, which was involved in the failed attempt to rescue the crew of the Kursk. AS-28 – Project 1855 AS-34 – Project 1855 MV Swift Rescue, launched 29 November 2008, is Singapores first and it is equipped with a deep submergence rescue vehicle. The United Kingdom operates the LR5 submersible in a rescue role. It previously operated the Slingsby Engineering built LR3, the DSRVs were originally designed to work with USS Pigeon and USS Ortolan, but those two vessels have since been decommissioned and replaced by the Submarine Rescue Diving Recompression System. DSRV-1 Mystic - Deactivation begun on 1 October 2008, replaced with remotely operated tethered SRDRS. DSRV-2 Avalon - currently at the Central Coast Maritime Museum, Morro Bay and their maximum operating depth is 1500 m. Power is provided by 2 large batteries, one fore, and one aft that power the electrical, hydraulic and life support systems. The DSRV uses mercury in a sealed system to allow themselves to match any angle in both pitch and roll so as to mate to a downed submarine that may be at an angle on the sea floor. The DSRV is capable of being transported by Air Force C-5 to anywhere in the world within 24 hours and it is then loaded onto a Mother Submarine
4.
Bathyscaphe Trieste
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On 23 January 1960, Jacques Piccard and US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh achieved the goal of Project Nekton. Trieste was the first manned vessel to have reached the bottom of the Challenger Deep, Trieste consisted of a float chamber filled with gasoline for buoyancy, with a separate pressure sphere to hold the crew. This configuration, allowed for a dive, rather than the previous bathysphere designs in which a sphere was lowered to depth. Trieste was designed by the Swiss scientist Auguste Piccard and originally built in Italy and his pressure sphere, composed of two sections, was built by the company Acciaierie Terni. The upper part was manufactured by the company Cantieri Riuniti dellAdriatico, in the Free Territory of Trieste, the installation of the pressure sphere was done in the Cantiere navale di Castellammare di Stabia, near Naples. Trieste was launched on 26 August 1953 into the Mediterranean Sea near the Isle of Capri, the design was based on previous experience with the bathyscaphe FNRS-2. Trieste was operated by the French Navy, after several years of operation in the Mediterranean Sea, the Trieste was purchased by the United States Navy in 1958 for $250,000. At the time of Project Nekton, Trieste was more than 15 m long, the pressure sphere provided just enough room for two people. Trieste was subsequently fitted with a new sphere, manufactured by the Krupp Steel Works of Essen, Germany. To withstand the pressure of 1.25 metric tons per cm² at the bottom of Challenger Deep. The sphere weighed 14.25 metric tons in air and 8 metric tons in water, outside illumination for the craft was provided by quartz arc-light bulbs, which proved to be able to withstand the over 1,000 standard atmospheres of pressure without any modification. Trieste departed San Diego on 5 October 1959 for Guam aboard the freighter Santa Maria to participate in Project Nekton, on 23 January 1960, she reached the ocean floor in the Challenger Deep, carrying Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh. This was the first time a vessel, manned or unmanned, had reached the deepest known point of the Earths oceans, the descent to the ocean floor took 4 hours 47 minutes at a descent rate of 0.9 metres per second. After passing 9,000 metres, one of the outer Plexiglas window panes cracked, the two men spent barely twenty minutes on the ocean floor. The temperature in the cabin was 7 °C at the time, while at maximum depth, Piccard and Walsh unexpectedly regained the ability to communicate with the support ship, USS Wandank, using a sonar/hydrophone voice communications system. While at the bottom, Piccard and Walsh observed a number of small sole and their claim the fish were swimming would prove at least some vertebrate life can withstand the extreme pressure at the oceans deepest point. They noted that the floor of the Challenger Deep consisted of diatomaceous ooze, the ascent took 3 hours and 15 minutes. Beginning in April 1963, Trieste was modified and used in the Atlantic Ocean to search for the missing submarine USS Thresher, Trieste was delivered to Boston Harbor by USS Point Defiance under the command of Captain H. H. Haisten
5.
Merchant vessel
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A merchant vessel or trading vessel is a boat or ship that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This excludes pleasure craft that do not carry passengers for hire, most countries of the world operate fleets of merchant ships. However, due to the costs of operations, today these fleets are in many cases sailing under the flags of nations that specialize in providing manpower. Such flags are known as flags of convenience, currently, Liberia and Panama are particularly favoured. Ownership of the vessels can be by any country, however, the Greek-owned fleet is the largest in the world. Today, the Greek fleet accounts for some 16 per cent of the world’s tonnage, during wars, merchant ships may be used as auxiliaries to the navies of their respective countries, and are called upon to deliver military personnel and materiel. The term commercial vessel is defined by the United States Coast Guard as any vessel engaged in trade or that carries passengers for hire. In English, Merchant Navy without further clarification is used to refer to the British Merchant Navy, general cargo ships include multi-purpose and project vessels and roll-on/roll-off cargo. A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, thousands of cargo carriers ply the worlds seas and oceans each year, they handle the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usually designed for the task, often being equipped with cranes and other mechanisms to load and unload. Dry cargo ships today are mainly bulk carriers and container ships, bulk carriers or bulkers are used for the transportation of homogeneous cargo such as coal, rubber, copra, tin, and wheat. Container ships are used for the carriage of miscellaneous goods, a bulk carrier is an ocean-going vessel used to transport bulk cargo items such as iron ore, bauxite, coal, cement, grain and similar cargo. Bulk carriers can be recognized by large box-like hatches on deck, the dimensions of bulk carriers are often determined by the ports and sea routes that they need to serve, and by the maximum width of the Panama Canal. Most lakes are too small to accommodate bulk carriers, but a large fleet of lake freighters has been plying the Great Lakes, container ships are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size containers, in a technique called containerization. They form a common means of commercial freight transport. A tanker is a designed to transport liquids in bulk. Tankers can range in size from several hundred tons, designed to serve small harbours and coastal settlements, to several hundred thousand tons, gas Carriers such as LNG carriers as they are typically known, are a relatively rare tanker designed to carry liquefied natural gas. It has a deadweight of 565 thousand metric tons and length of about 458 meters, the use of such large ships is in fact very unprofitable, due to the inability to operate them at full cargo capacity, hence, the production of supertankers has currently ceased
6.
Charles W. Morgan (ship)
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Charles W. Morgan is an American whaling ship built in 1841 whose active service period was during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Ships of this type were used to harvest the blubber of whales for whale oil. The ship has served as a ship since the 1940s. She is the worlds oldest surviving merchant vessel, and the surviving wooden whaling ship from the 19th century American merchant fleet. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966, Charles Waln Morgan chose Jethro and Zachariah Hillmans shipyard in New Bedford, Massachusetts to construct a new ship. Charles W. Morgans live oak keel was laid down in February 1841, the bow and stern pieces of live oak were secured to the keel by an apron piece. The sturdy stern post was strengthened with hemlock root and white oak, yellow pine shipped from North Carolina was used for the ships beams and hemlock or hackmatack was used for the hanging knees. Construction of Charles W. Morgan proceeded until April 19,1841, the strike gathered support until it encompassed the shipyard, the oil refineries, and the cooper shops, Morgan was appointed chairman of the employers and given the task of resolving the strike. Morgan opposed their demands, and a meeting with four master mechanics ended in failure, on May 6, an agreement was reached when the workers accepted a ten-and-a-half-hour workday. Work resumed on the ship without incident and she was launched on July 21,1841, the ship was registered as a caravel of 106 1⁄2 feet in length,27 feet 2 1⁄2 inches inches in breadth, and 13 feet 7 1⁄4 inches in depth. The ship was outfitted at Rotchs Wharf for the two months while preparations were made for its first voyage. The eponymous name, Charles W. Morgan, was rejected by her namesake builder before being used. Captain Thomas Norton sailed Charles W. Morgan into the Atlantic alongside Adeline Gibbs, a stop was made at Porto Pim on Faial Island to gather supplies before crossing the Atlantic. The ship passed Cape Horn, then charted a course to the north, on December 13, the men launched in their whaling boats and took their first whale, harpooning and killing it with the thrust of a lance under the side fin. Charles W. Morgan entered the port of Callau in early February, in 1844, the ship sailed to the Kodiak Grounds before sailing for home on August 18. Charles W. Morgan returned to her port in New Bedford on January 2,1845.56. In her 80 years of service from her port of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Charles W. Morgan, in total, brought home 54,483 barrels of sperm and she sailed in the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans, surviving ice and snow storms
7.
SS Great Britain
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SS Great Britain is a museum ship and former passenger steamship, which was advanced for her time. She was the longest passenger ship in the world from 1845 to 1854 and she was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Steamship Companys transatlantic service between Bristol and New York. While other ships had been built of iron or equipped with a screw propeller and she was the first iron steamer to cross the Atlantic, which she did in 1845, in the time of 14 days. The ship is 322 ft in length and has a 3 and she was powered by two inclined 2 cylinder engines of the direct-acting type, with twin 88 in bore, 6-foot stroke cylinders. She was also provided with secondary sail power, the four decks provided accommodation for a crew of 120, plus 360 passengers who were provided with cabins, dining, and promenade saloons. When launched in 1843, Great Britain was by far the largest vessel afloat, in 1852 she was sold for salvage and repaired. Great Britain carried thousands of immigrants to Australia from 1852 until converted to sail in 1881, three years later, she was retired to the Falkland Islands where she was used as a warehouse, quarantine ship and coal hulk until scuttled in 1937. In 1970, following a donation by Sir Jack Hayward that paid for the vessel to be towed back to the UK. Now listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, she is a visitor attraction and museum ship in Bristol Harbour. After the initial success of its first liner, SS Great Western of 1838, the same engineering team that had collaborated so successfully on Great Western—Isambard Brunel, Thomas Guppy, Christopher Claxton and William Patterson—was again assembled. This time however, Brunel, whose reputation was at its height, construction was carried out in a specially adapted dry dock in Bristol, England. Two chance encounters were to affect the design of Great Britain. In late 1838, John Lairds 213-foot English Channel packet ship Rainbow—the largest iron-hulled ship then in service—made a stop at Bristol, Brunel despatched his associates Christopher Claxton and William Patterson to make a return voyage to Antwerp on Rainbow to assess the utility of the new building material. Both men returned as converts to iron-hulled technology, and Brunel scrapped his plans to build a wooden ship, Great Britains builders recognised a number of advantages of iron over the traditional wooden hull. Wood was becoming more expensive, while iron was getting cheaper, Iron hulls were not subject to dry rot or woodworm, and they were also lighter in weight and less bulky. The chief advantage of the hull was its much greater structural strength. The practical limit on the length of a ship is about 300 feet. Iron hulls are far less subject to hogging, so that the size of an iron-hulled ship is much greater
8.
Edwin Fox
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Edwin Fox is the worlds second oldest surviving merchant sailing ship and the only surviving ship that transported convicts to Australia. She is unique in that she is the only intact hull of a wooden sailing ship built to British specifications surviving in the world outside the Falkland Islands. Edwin Fox carried settlers to both Australia and New Zealand and carried troops in the Crimean War, the ship is dry-docked at The Edwin Fox Maritime Centre at Picton in New Zealand. She was built of teak in Calcutta in 1853 and her voyage was to London via the Cape of Good Hope. She then went into service in the Crimean War as a troop ship, on 14 February 1856 she began her first voyage to Melbourne, Australia, carrying passengers, then moved to trading between Chinese ports. In 1858 she was chartered by the British Government as a ship bound for Fremantle. Conditions on board for the four to six-month voyage were harsh and luggage strictly limited, on arrival they often found conditions much harsher than expected, and were also faced with being cut off from family and friends in distant Europe, sometimes for life. Edwin Fox was overtaken by the age of steam, and in the 1880s she was refitted as a floating freezer hulk for the sheep industry in New Zealand. She was towed to Picton in the South Island on 12 January 1897 where she continued as a freezer ship. By this time she had long since lost her rigging and masts, and suffered holes cut in her sides, the ship was in use until 1950, then abandoned to rot at her moorings. In 1965 she was bought by the Edwin Fox Society for the sum of one shilling. In 1967 she was towed to Shakespeare Bay where she remained for the next 20 years, after much further fundraising the ship was refloated and towed to her final home, a dry dock on the Picton waterfront. She floated in and the dock was drained to begin restoration, initially it was planned to restore the ship completely, replacing rigging and refurbishing the interior. It has since decided that this is not practical, not only for reasons of finance. She is thus preserved as a hull with an adjacent informative museum, the trust are also looking for sponsors to continue their work on this unique vessel. She has been given a category I registration from Heritage New Zealand, the Edwin Fox, Picton, New Zealand from H2G2
9.
Star of India (ship)
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Star of India was built in 1863 at Ramsey in the Isle of Man as Euterpe, a full-rigged iron windjammer ship. After a full career sailing from Great Britain to India and New Zealand, retired in 1926, she was not restored until 1962–63 and is now a seaworthy museum ship home-ported at the Maritime Museum of San Diego in San Diego, California. She is the oldest ship still sailing regularly and also the oldest iron-hulled merchant ship still floating, the ship is both a California Historical Landmark and United States National Historic Landmark. She was launched on 14 November 1863, and assigned British Registration No.47617, euterpes career had a rough beginning. She sailed for Calcutta from Liverpool on 9 January 1864, under the command of Captain William John Storry, a collision with an unlit Spanish brig off the coast of Wales carried away the jib-boom and damaged other rigging. The crew became mutinous, refusing to continue, and she returned to Anglesey to repair,17 of the crew were confined to the Beaumaris Jail at hard labor. Then, in 1865, Euterpe was forced to cut away her masts in a gale in the Bay of Bengal off Madras and limped to Trincomalee, Captain Storry died during the return voyage to England and was buried at sea. In late 1871 she began twenty-five years of carrying passengers and freight in the New Zealand emigrant trade, the fastest of her 21 passages to New Zealand took 100 days, the longest 143 days. She also made ports of call in Australia, California, a baby was born on one of those trips en route to New Zealand, and was given the middle name Euterpe. Another child, John William Philips Palmer, was born on the 1873 journey to Dunedin, New Zealand and she was registered in the United States on 30 October 1900. In 1906, the Association changed her name to be consistent with the rest of their fleet and she was laid up in 1923 after 22 Alaskan voyages, by that time, steam ruled the seas. In 1926, Star of India was sold to the Zoological Society of San Diego, California, the Great Depression and World War II caused that plan to be canceled, and it was not until 1957 that restoration began. Alan Villiers, a captain and author, came to San Diego on a lecture tour. Seeing Star of India decaying in the harbor, he publicized the situation, progress was still slow, but in 1976, Star of India finally put to sea again. She houses exhibits for the Maritime Museum of San Diego, is kept fully seaworthy, unlike many preserved or restored vessels, her hull, cabins and equipment are nearly 100% original. This location is slightly west of downtown San Diego, California, the other ships belonging to the Maritime Museum are always docked to the north of Star of India. Her nearest neighbor – since 2007 – is HMS Surprise, a replica of a British frigate, when she sails, Star of India often remains within sight of the coast of San Diego County, and usually returns to her dock within a day. She is sailed by a volunteer crew of Maritime Museum members
10.
City of Adelaide (1864)
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City of Adelaide is a clipper ship, built in Sunderland, England, and launched on 7 May 1864. The ship was commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Carrick between 1923 and 1948 and, after decommissioning, was known as Carrick until 2001. At a conference convened by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in 2001, the decision was made to revert the name to City of Adelaide. City of Adelaide was built by William Pile, Hay and Co. for transporting passengers, between 1864 and 1887 the ship made 23 annual return voyages from London and Plymouth to Adelaide, South Australia. During this period she played an important part in the immigration of Australia, on the return voyages she carried passengers, wool, and copper from Adelaide and Port Augusta to London. From 1869 to 1885 she was part of Harrold Brothers Adelaide Line of clippers, after 1887 the ship carried coal around the British coast, and timber across the Atlantic. In 1893 she became a hospital in Southampton, and in 1923 was purchased by the Royal Navy. Converted as a ship, she was also renamed HMS Carrick to avoid confusion with the newly commissioned HMAS Adelaide. HMS Carrick was based in Scotland until 1948 when she was decommissioned and donated to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Club, Carrick remained on the River Clyde until 1989 when she was damaged by flooding. In order to safeguard the vessel she was protected as a listed building, Carrick was recovered by the Scottish Maritime Museum the following year, and moved to a private slipway adjacent to the museums site in Irvine. Restoration work began, but funding ceased in 1999, and from 2000 the future of the ship was in doubt, in 2010, the Scottish Government decided that the ship would be moved to Adelaide, to be preserved as a museum ship. In September 2013 the ship moved by barge from Scotland to the Netherlands to prepare for transport to Australia. In late November 2013, loaded on the deck of a ship, City of Adelaide departed Europe bound for Port Adelaide, Australia. City of Adelaide is the worlds oldest surviving clipper ship, of two that survive — the other is Cutty Sark. With Cutty Sark and HMS Gannet, City of Adelaide is one of three surviving ocean-going ships of composite construction to survive. City of Adelaide is one of three surviving sailing ships, and the only of these a passenger ship, to have taken emigrants from the British Isles, City of Adelaide is the only surviving purpose-built passenger sailing ship. Adding to her significance as an emigrant ship, City of Adelaide is the last survivor of the trade between North America and the United Kingdom. Having been built in the prior to Lloyds Register publishing their rules for composite ships
11.
Cutty Sark
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Cutty Sark is a British clipper ship. She continued as a ship until purchased in 1922 by retired sea captain Wilfred Dowman. After his death, Cutty Sark was transferred to the Thames Nautical Training College, by 1954, she had ceased to be useful as a cadet ship and was transferred to permanent dry dock at Greenwich, London, for public display. Cutty Sark is listed by National Historic Ships as part of the National Historic Fleet, the ship has been damaged by fire twice in recent years, first on 21 May 2007 while undergoing conservation. She was restored and was reopened to the public on 25 April 2012, on 19 October 2014 she was damaged in a smaller fire. Cutty Sark was ordered by shipping magnate John Willis, who operated a company founded by his father. The company had a fleet of clippers and regularly took part in the tea trade from China to Britain. In 1868 the brand new Aberdeen built clipper Thermopylae set a time of 61 days port to port on her maiden voyage from London to Melbourne. It is uncertain how the shape for Cutty Sark was chosen. Willis chose Hercules Linton to design and build the ship but Willis already possessed another ship, The Tweed, which he considered to have exceptional performance. The Tweed was a designed by Oliver Lang based on the lines of an old French frigate. She and a ship were purchased by Willis, who promptly sold the second ship plus engines from The Tweed for more than he paid for both. The Tweed was then lengthened and operated as a fast sailing vessel, Willis also commissioned two all-iron clippers with designs based upon The Tweed, Halloween and Blackadder. Linton was taken to view The Tweed in dry dock, Willis considered that The Tweeds bow shape was responsible for its notable performance, and this form seems to have been adopted for Cutty Sark. Linton, however, felt that the stern was too barrel shaped, the broader stern increased the buoyancy of the ships stern, making it lift more in heavy seas so it was less likely that waves would break over the stern, and over the helmsman at the wheel. The square bilge was carried forward through the centre of the ship, in the matter of masts Cutty Sark also followed the design of The Tweed, with similar good rake and with the foremast on both ships being placed further aft than was usual. A contract for Cutty Sarks construction was signed on 1 February 1869 with the firm of Scott & Linton and their shipyard was at Dumbarton on the River Leven on a site previously occupied by shipbuilders William Denny & Brothers. The contract required the ship to be completed six months at a contracted price of £17 per ton
