- 2 days ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:02The River Clyde, Scotland's most iconic waterway.
00:07Today it's a bustling commercial hub.
00:11But 150 years ago, this was the beating heart of an industrial revolution.
00:19And fueling it were its shipyards.
00:26I'm David Heyman, and I grew up surrounded by those yards and the magnificent ships they produced.
00:34But it's where they went, what they did, and the lives they touched that's always fascinated me.
00:43In this series, I'm going to uncover the secrets of the great ships that laid the foundations of today's Commonwealth
00:50of Nations.
00:52It's a journey that's going to take me around the world to tell incredible stories and unearth extraordinary characters.
01:05If you want to know why Britannia ruled the waves and where the Commonwealth was born, look no further than
01:11here.
01:28In the early hours of the 21st of May 2007, a fire broke out in London's Greenwich Stocklands.
01:38As the emergency services arrived, it became clear that this was no ordinary incident.
01:44The 19th century tea clip of the Cutty Sark is on fire.
01:49A blaze was one of the most iconic ships in British maritime history, and the news made headlines around the
01:56world.
02:02And this is the ship, the Cutty Sark.
02:06Probably the most famous ship in the world, and certainly to me, one of the most beautiful.
02:12As a boy, I found a painting of her in a flea market, and it hung on my wall for
02:17years.
02:18As an inspiration, she had over 20 sails, probably miles and miles of rigging.
02:24She must have seemed like something out of the future, like an ocean-going sports car.
02:30But there's a lot more to this old clipper than just looks.
02:34No, hers is a wonderful story of adventure, speed, record-breaking, mutiny, murder, success, and even shame.
02:49This ship was destined to carve her name in the books of history.
02:56And all this was driven by one man's dream of creating the fastest ship the world had ever seen.
03:02His name was John Willis.
03:04And that obsession resulted in a ship that would shape new nations, change many lives, and destroy a few as
03:13well.
03:14My feeling is that a grave miscarriage of justice took place here.
03:18One thing's for sure, the Curtis Sark does not owe her longevity to a quiet life, for her stories are
03:26the stuff of myth and legend.
03:28And I'm going to explore her legacy, and find out what brought her here to our final resting place, at
03:34Greenwich, in the heart of London.
03:41But it's a tale that begins not in London, but back in my hometown of Glasgow.
03:53The 19th century was a transformative time for the city.
03:59Scotland and England were flourishing with free trade, and by the 1850s, Clydeside was a key commercial hub, as merchants
04:08made a fortune from the import of goods like tobacco and sugar.
04:16Shipbuilding had grown up and developed alongside business.
04:20And that sexy combination made Glasgow and Clydeside a great world centre for wooden boat building.
04:29Then came the revolution that was iron.
04:36Plentiful local resources of coal and ironstone meant that the River Clyde was better placed than any other to develop
04:44iron shipbuilding.
04:51By the mid-1800s, there were over 30 Clydeside yards, making 80% of the world's big ships.
05:01It was a golden maritime age, but a highly competitive one that didn't have much room for renegade designers.
05:13Until, that is, someone came along who would change all that.
05:19Hercules Linton. He was simply one of the brightest young minds of his generation.
05:25A man, way ahead of his time.
05:27He wasn't just interested in building any old boat.
05:30He wanted to build them strong and make them beautiful.
05:38It was a design instinct that was clearly in the blood.
05:45Born to a successful ship's carpenter in 1837, Linton was immersed in the craft of boat building at an early
05:52age.
05:53At 18, he was one of the youngest apprentice draftsmen in the business when he joined Alexander Hall & Sons,
06:01Britain's most prestigious shipping firm.
06:05Even as a teenage apprentice, he was beginning to build a reputation for himself as a very talented designer.
06:12And by 1868, this exceptional young man started his own shipyard.
06:18Over there, that unassuming piece of land on the banks of the River Clyde.
06:25Hercules joined forces with local engineer, William Scott.
06:29And together, Scott and Linton was about to create the most famous ship in the world.
06:37Clyde's shipbuilding was a cutthroat business in the 1860s.
06:40And Hercules had been forced to sell everything he had, just to buy his yard in the first place.
06:46He desperately needed orders.
06:52And he was about to get one, from the most ruthless businessman around.
06:59John Willis was a wealthy Scotsman from a powerful maritime family.
07:04His father had been a celebrated captain, who set up his own successful shipping company.
07:10And Willis was destined to follow in the family business.
07:15Sir Old White Hat Willis, as he was commonly called.
07:19He spent many years at sea well into his thirties, building a fairly formidable reputation as a merchant sea captain.
07:27But then, on the death of his father, he inherited a shipping line and a fleet of clippers.
07:35He soon built up a fierce reputation as a canny and very scrupulous businessman.
07:41But there was one commodity that got him more excited than anything else.
07:46This stuff.
07:48Tea.
07:50Tea was huge business in the 19th century.
07:54Free trade had ended the East India Company's monopoly on sales.
07:58And the result was a huge explosion in demand.
08:02It used to be the preserve of the rich and the privileged.
08:06But then it took off and became a working man's drink.
08:08Millions of us began to consume it.
08:11So it was big business.
08:13And this business created a lively sea trade between Britain and China.
08:19And of course, due to the competitive nature of man, the tea races were born.
08:23Who could get the tea back to Britain quickest?
08:27Old White Hat Willis desperately wanted a piece of that action.
08:31But the only way he could get it was to build a clipper fast enough to beat everyone else.
08:40So when he heard about a new shipyard and a talented young designer called Hercules Linton,
08:46Willis had surely found the perfect place to build his Curtis Ark.
08:56In January 1869, Scott and Linton were commissioned by Captain John Willis to build a fine-lined clipper ship that
09:04would challenge for supremacy in the tea races.
09:12Linton had landed the biggest contract of his life, and to make sure it would deliver, he had a trick
09:18up his sleeve.
09:22Now, young Hercules, he was a smart kid.
09:27And he was part of a new generation of shipbuilders and ship designers.
09:31And what they wanted to do was use new cutting-edge techniques
09:35and their approach to the construction of ships such as the Curtis Ark.
09:43Linton's genius was to use both wood and iron.
09:47His composite construction consisted of a wrought iron framework onto which wooden planks were bolted.
09:57I'm meeting maritime historian Eric Kentley to find out more about this revolutionary approach to ship design.
10:04The great advantage of an iron ship, of course, is that its frames are very, very narrow.
10:09So you could get far more...
10:11And stronger.
10:11And stronger.
10:12But you can get far more cargo inside the ship than you can on a wooden ship.
10:16Whereas, you know, they have great big wooden beams.
10:18So around 1860, someone came up with a brilliant idea of,
10:22Well, let's have a wooden ship, but let's make the framework of iron.
10:26And let's make it absolutely rigid, so it's as strong as a bridge.
10:30And that will give us the advantages of both.
10:33Composite construction was born.
10:35That really was clever, and way ahead of its time, wasn't it?
10:37Well, you still find composite vessels today.
10:40It's still used as a technique in some very fast yachts,
10:45because it does combine the nice flexibility of a wooden hull with that rigidity of the framework.
10:53With this hull design and innovative shape,
10:57Hercules Linton was designing a truly groundbreaking ship.
11:03But all of this was to come at a cost,
11:05as the Cutty Sark's owner began to flex his muscles.
11:14John Willis might have been a successful ship owner,
11:17but to many, he was also a ruthless businessman.
11:20He knew that Linton's fledgling company were in dire need of work,
11:25a fact that allowed Willis to drive a very hard bargain.
11:31He would use his contract to enforce a long list of exacting specifications
11:36on everything from quality of material to craftsmanship.
11:42All of which would make delivery of the Cutty Sark on budget virtually impossible.
11:52As work started in February 1869, these contractual details would come to haunt Linton.
11:59Willis despised his own team to scrutinise every aspect of his build.
12:06Now that meant that anything that had the slightest flaw, or even the smallest blemish, was rejected.
12:14Everything had to be produced to the most exacting standards.
12:22And on top of that, harsh financial penalties were also enforced every time a deadline was missed.
12:29And that resulted in our young genius, Hercules Linton, ending up deep in debt.
12:39And documents recently discovered suggest that Willis was certainly in no mood to bail him out,
12:44thanks to one killer clause in the contract.
12:50Willis had stipulated that if Linton went under,
12:54the completion of the Cutty Sark would pass to another yard, just across the river.
13:04Old White Hat was building the best ship in the world at a knock-down price.
13:09And with someone else on standby to pick up the pieces if it all went wrong,
13:13he had the perfect back-up plan.
13:20I have come to meet Robin Denny, whose family owned that neighbouring yard,
13:24to find out more about what Willis was up to.
13:28White Hat Willis, certainly, he knew that they desperately wanted the contract,
13:36and therefore he could virtually demand his own price.
13:41And altogether, they just couldn't cope with it.
13:45What a shame.
13:46So his dreams were almost shattered at that stage, weren't they?
13:49Young Linton's dreams, I mean.
13:50It must have been horrific for him, yes.
13:53The poor chap, he must have thought,
13:56I've got myself into it.
13:57Where do I go now?
13:59Old White Hat Willis.
14:01Do you think he had a master plan from the very, very beginning?
14:05Did he attempt to destroy that yard?
14:08I'm not sure he wanted to destroy them, but he certainly knew they were really keen, if not desperate.
14:16Well, he had Linton and Scott over on a barrel, didn't he?
14:18Oh, yes, yes, yes.
14:20He was a pretty hard businessman, and he was out to benefit himself.
14:27If anyone else got in the way, that was a bit unfortunate.
14:34Whatever Willis's motivation, the fact was that Scott and Linton were forced out of business.
14:41What Willis did next was to take control of the building of the Cutty Sark from Linton's wood yard on
14:48the other side of the river, at the foot of Dumbarton Rock, and give it to this side, Denny's yard.
14:58By the time the Cutty Sark was ready to be launched in late 1869, Linton was destitute, and Willis's ruthlessness
15:06had made him a much hated figure.
15:12A Clydeside ship launch was normally a cause for great celebration, but for the Cutty Sark, it was anything but.
15:26I'm hoping that local librarian Sam Moore can tell me more about that day.
15:33On Monday afternoon there was launched, from the shipbuilding yard of Messers Scott and Linton, a handsome composite clipper ship.
15:40The Cutty Sark is intended for the China tea trade, and is expected by our owners to be one of
15:45the fastest ships engaged in that traffic.
15:48You know, for such an iconic ship, she had a very inespicious launch, didn't she?
15:53She did, but there was many ships on the Clyde that were launched within that short period of time, and
15:59there are many reasons for it, the amount of ships that were launched.
16:02But also, at that time, there may have been a bit of friction between Mr Willis, who had the ship
16:08built, and Scott and Linton, the designers, and Denny, who eventually finished the ship.
16:14Denny must have been annoyed that he was left with a ship to finish off, and at the end of
16:19the day it was, get the ship, get it out there, get it to Greenock, I'm finished, I want paid,
16:24and I want my men back to be able to continue the jobs that they're being paid to do for
16:28him, not for Scott and Linton, at the end of the day.
16:32But in the very same paper that marked the Cutty Sark's launch, there was another article.
16:39One that told of a landmark event that was about to have a catastrophic impact on this little clipper.
16:48Opening of the Suez Canal, commenced by religious ceremonies in the open air, great enthusiasm prevailed.
16:56Now this is an extraordinary piece of synchronicity, because on the day that the Dumbarton Herald announced the launching of
17:04the Cutty Sark, she also announced the opening of the Suez Canal.
17:09Suez Canal?
17:11That innocuous name alluded to an extraordinary piece of Victorian engineering that was going to prove to be a dagger
17:18at the heart of the beautiful Cutty Sark.
17:24Built to facilitate the British Empire's burgeoning trade links with Asia, by linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, the
17:31Suez Canal changed everything.
17:33Cutting over 12 days of the average voyage from London to China.
17:42Whilst it was very easy for a steamship to make a way along this newly opened waterway, the prevailing winds
17:50in the Red Sea meant it was well nigh impossible for a clipper ship to do the same.
17:56And to make matters worse, the steamers could carry almost twice as much cargo as a clipper, and at half
18:03the crew costs.
18:05So affording the canal toll fees was easy for steam, but impossible for sale.
18:11Meaning that the clipper had to stick to the long route to China.
18:19The impact of the Suez Canal on sale would not be an immediate one, as many merchants had invested heavily
18:25in their clipper fleets.
18:27But the writing was certainly on the wall.
18:32The grand opening of the Suez Canal must have been a seriously unsettling omen for what lay ahead.
18:40But for now, for the Cutty Sark, she only had her eyes on one prize.
18:46Victory in the tea races.
18:50John Willis had his new ship.
18:52Now he planned to use it to dominate the biggest industry in the world.
19:00As she set sail on her maiden voyage in February 1870, to collect her first cargo, tea was a massive
19:07colonial industry.
19:09And merchants were desperate for their multi-million pound hauls.
19:17The tea races that this demand inspired became legendary, as huge bonuses were paid to the first ship to dock
19:23back in London with the New Seasons crop.
19:29The sprint for the finish line captured the imagination of the British public, who began to bet on which ship
19:35would arrive first.
19:38This advert is a brilliant example of how frenzy the competition was.
19:43It reads,
19:44Great race of the tea ships with the first New Seasons teas.
19:47The taping and the aerial have arrived with others in close pursuit, with something like 45 million pounds of new
19:54tea on board.
19:55Half a year's consumption for the United Kingdom.
20:02The stakes were high, and the Cutty Sark was about to make a name for herself, and one of the
20:06most infamous races of all.
20:11The ship was placed under the captaincy of Scotsman George Moody, a highly experienced merchant skipper who had helmed many
20:19of the ships in John Willis' fleet.
20:22Now he was to take charge of his flagship clipper.
20:27Her first two tea voyages were highly profitable, but unmemorable.
20:32The Cutty Sark was delivering one million pound profits, and a lasting colonial trade link with Asia for its owner.
20:39But what Willis really wanted, was to be the fastest.
20:45And that meant beating the Cutty Sark's main competitor, the Thermopylae, another fine Scottish-built clipper.
20:54Legendary for being the quickest ship on the open seas.
20:59Willis had the Thermopylae, and had already established formidable reputation in his sights.
21:06And then in 1872, he had his first chance to beat her.
21:14Laden with their precious tea, the ships raced out of Shanghai Harbour together in June 1872, en route to London.
21:23Both desperate to claim the prize of being first to port.
21:28The two ships were neck and neck, but as they raced into the Indian Ocean, something remarkable happened.
21:36The Cutty Sark, with her beautifully sleek racing lines, began to show off.
21:42Began to do what she was built for.
21:46As Captain Moody cast the little clipper's huge sail rig, she pulled away from the Thermopylae, with ease.
21:55With strong winds, the Cutty Sark's great power at once began to tell, and she went romping ahead, with three
22:02consecutive runs.
22:03The two racers would not meet again.
22:07The Cutty Sark was performing exactly as Hercules Linton had designed her to.
22:12But that incredible ocean-going speed was not just down to her innovative shape.
22:21It was also down to that other unique design feature incorporated by Hercules Linton.
22:27This stuff.
22:29Muntz Metal.
22:33Muntz was a new alloy created in the mid-1800s, made up of copper, zinc and iron.
22:40It was discovered that the copper was able to leach out, when in contact with water, and poison anything that
22:46tried to attach itself.
22:48This incredible protective quality made it perfect for shipping.
22:56Hercules decided to use this Muntz Metal as a sheathing, an outer skin round the Cutty Sark.
23:05And that proved to be a very effective idea.
23:08Because no barnacles, no seaweed, therefore more power, more speed and more profit.
23:15That boy was a genius.
23:20This combination of sheathing and her unique hull design proved to be a potent one in her famous race with
23:27the Thermopylae.
23:31The lead she built up in that voyage in 1872 was so damn impressive.
23:37I mean, she proved beyond doubt that she was the fastest ship on the ocean.
23:43But as Captain Moody raced his clipper around the tip of South Africa in pursuit of the big seas,
23:50he encountered the wrath of the very oceans that gave the Cutty Sark her speed.
23:57Hurricane force winds battered the clipper for five days,
24:01and eventually, as the gales and high seas pounded the ship, disaster struck.
24:07A heavy sea broke under the stern of the ship and struck the rudder,
24:12ripping it from its eye-bolt and carrying it away from the trunk downwards.
24:16We soon found that we could not steer the ship.
24:20Without her rudder, the Cutty Sark was effectively crippled.
24:25Under a force-term gale, it was only a matter of time before she would capsize.
24:32So Captain Moody had a major dilemma on his hands.
24:38Somehow he and his crew had to build a replacement rudder at sea,
24:42or face the complete loss of his ship with all hands.
24:50A makeshift forge was set up on deck,
24:53and the ship's carpenter got to work on a temporary rudder.
24:59Constructing a new rudder in stern post was a difficult job,
25:02as there was a good deal of sea on.
25:05The difficulty now was getting the rudder in place as the ship rolled in strong winds and heavy seas.
25:18Eric, it's only when you stand next to this incredible rudder
25:22that you truly get a sense of the scale of the challenge facing those seamen.
25:27Not only do you have to construct a wooden rudder from bits of spar, bits of timber,
25:33old replacement planking, anything you can find, to carve something roughly that shape,
25:38you actually have to make all these fittings to actually hang it off the stern of the ship.
25:43The only way to do that is to set up a temporary forge on the deck.
25:48You can imagine what that would have been like with hot burning coals on a deck that's rolling backwards and
25:54forwards.
25:54And molten metal.
25:55And molten metal. And you can imagine that the inevitable did happen at least once the whole thing went over.
26:02And unfortunately it did catch several people, including one of the apprentices, who was the son of the captain.
26:07Was it less or more of a challenge than actually building another rudder at sea?
26:12If it had been my decision, I would have probably chickened out and I would have headed for Port Elizabeth.
26:16I'd be in your gang. Honest captain.
26:22Captain Moody's decision to build a replacement rudder at sea had been a bold one.
26:27But it would cost him dearly.
26:30His son was permanently disfigured by the forge accident.
26:34And his ship was about to be overtaken by her arch rival.
26:41The thermopoly had passed the stricken clipper off the South African coast and forged 500 miles ahead.
26:50Eventually reaching London nine days before her.
26:54Back home the race had been lost.
26:56But as far as the British public were concerned, the real victory belonged to the Cutty's Ark.
27:05News of the exploits of Captain Moody and his crew spread like wildfire.
27:10They became heroes.
27:13Not only because of their incredible seamanship, but also due to their extraordinary courage in the pursuit of British trade.
27:21And pride.
27:28The clipper might have been forging lasting trade links with new parts of the world.
27:32But the sail ship was rapidly becoming an outdated mode of transport.
27:38Steam was now the dominant force in the T-runs.
27:43This was a crisis.
27:46And to put that crisis in context, imagine it this way.
27:49On her maiden voyage to China, the Cutty's Ark brought back 500 tons of black tea.
27:56That's enough to fill 580 million of these little things.
28:01Tea bags.
28:03But, by the time of her fifth voyage, six years later, that cargo had been cut by half.
28:13The reality was that steamships could carry twice the amount of tea and could get to port in half the
28:20time of sail.
28:24The Cutty's Ark was only three years old, but already a relic.
28:29Captain Moody knew it, an abandoned ship to join the steamer fleets.
28:35But old white hat Willis refused to accept reality.
28:40He obviously had great determination as a man.
28:43And he wanted to prove that his flagship clipper could actually pay for itself.
28:49That's a tall order.
28:55Ironically, demand for tea had never been greater.
28:58But for the Cutty's Ark, it was clear that her tea-running days were over.
29:04Commerce had rendered her redundant, and the little clipper was about to set sail on the darkest chapter in her
29:11story.
29:11A series of terrible voyages spanning half a decade that would become known as the Hellship Years.
29:29The Cutty's Ark began tramping, the rather unflattering term given to ships that would wander the world's ports,
29:37picking up whatever rogue cargoes they could.
29:42And the reputation of a tramping ship was an unenviable one.
29:53Nobody, absolutely nobody wanted to work on a tramping ship.
29:57It was like being a beggar of the sea.
30:00And the captains knew this.
30:03And they had to fill these bunks with sailors.
30:06Two to a bunk, by the way.
30:08So they were forced to choose between all the vagabonds and rogues of the ocean.
30:13Men of highly dubious character.
30:17The Cutty's Ark's new captain, James Smith Wallace, had the unenviable job of skipping the clipper in these circumstances.
30:25And he'd have his work cut out.
30:31For amongst his crew of twenty-one was a fiery first mate called Sidney Bucko Smith.
30:37And a new deckhand named William Francis.
30:45Now the thing is, William H. Francis and Bucko Smith, the first mate, were destined never to be pals.
30:57Some say they simply did not get on, whilst others claim the dislike was born of skin colour.
31:06For Francis was black, and racism was commonplace.
31:11The result was trouble.
31:17Smith and Francis' mutual loading would come to a head on the 11th of July, 1880, when the ship was
31:24about a week short of the Indonesian port of Anjar.
31:28As chance would have it, Smith and Francis ended up on the same watch together.
31:33And according to official reports, Smith gave Francis a direct order, which he disobeyed.
31:40What Smith attempted to do next was put Francis in shackles.
31:46Francis, being equally quick of temper, retaliated and attacked his first mate with an iron bar.
31:55There was a short, sharp struggle while the Bucko mate gained possession of the bar.
32:00Then it was the irate officer's turn, and without a moment's hesitation, Smith brought it down on the man's head
32:05with such force that Francis dropped senseless to the dead.
32:17Life aboard a 19th century sailing ship must have been really hard.
32:21There were fallings out, tempers flared.
32:24So murder, in those circumstances, was not uncommon.
32:28But it was what happened next that makes this story truly remarkable.
32:36Smith was duly shackled and locked in his cabin as the ship made for port, where he would be tried
32:42for murder, as was normal in these circumstances.
32:46But as the Cutty Sark docked in Anjar, it became clear that Smith had mysteriously disappeared.
32:53The log details are surprisingly hazy.
32:58But rumours began to circulate that it was in fact the captain who had aided and abetted his first mate's
33:03escape.
33:05Perhaps because he was sympathetic to the murder of an Negro.
33:13Wallace, of course, pleaded ignorance, but his crew weren't listening.
33:17Because they all felt that he was complicit in the escape of a fugitive, and the result was inevitable.
33:23It was mutiny.
33:27The ship was reduced to just a handful of men who agreed to work.
33:31But the Cutty Sark's huge rig was almost impossible to operate with so few hands, and she quickly became becalmed.
33:43Wallace knew that the way in which he had dealt with the Smith incident meant that he had lost the
33:47respect of his men, and his short-lived captaincy was over.
33:55So in the early hours of September the 4th, 1880, he jumped overboard to his death.
34:07But what became of the famous fugitive, Sidney Smith?
34:12I'm hoping genealogist Caroline Gurney will be able to shed some light on the Cutty Sark's greatest villain.
34:20So where did he go? What happened to him?
34:22He went over the side of the ship onto a boat to an American ship called the Colorado.
34:28Changed his name to John Anderson.
34:32And then he sailed on American ships for about two years, on a variety of them.
34:38And eventually, in June 1882, he came back into London on an American clipper into the South West India Dock.
34:45And it was really unlucky for him, because just a few weeks earlier, the crew of the Cutty Sark had
34:52finally come back from that hellship voyage.
34:54Oh! So it was a member of the Cutty Sark crew who spotted him in a wedding?
34:58It was several. They were in London in the docks.
35:01I think he, perhaps, was talking too much in the pub one night.
35:04He was picked up and arrested and taken to the Thames Police Court in the docks.
35:09That's where you call it bad timing.
35:11Absolutely appalling timing, yes.
35:16So Justice finally caught up with Smith.
35:19He would go on to serve seven years in prison.
35:22A number of witnesses deposed to his good character for humanity and kindness of disposition.
35:29But Caroline's research suggests there might be another side to the character of Sidney Bucko Smith.
35:37What's your impression of him? Do you think he was a bad guy? Was he a good guy?
35:40I think he's slightly more nuanced than perhaps the official record, if you like.
35:49When he left London in the Cutty Sark in May 1880, he was signed on as first mate at a
35:58wage of £7 a month.
36:00And £3 of that wage was given to his old mum.
36:05That's a slightly different image, isn't it, than the half-bit mate?
36:08A real sense of kind of familial duty there.
36:11Yeah.
36:13I want to find out more about the Cutty Sark's infamous first mate.
36:21But back on board the hell ship years, it was 1880, and things were going from bad to worse.
36:29Her crew had mutinied and their captain was now dead.
36:35What the Cutty Sark's owner, John Willis, must have been thinking when he received word of his flagship clipper's latest
36:41calamity, we can only imagine.
36:46Willis chose a former first mate, William Bruce, to be the new captain of the Cutty Sark.
36:52He was a Christian, he was an evangelist.
36:56A man who loved his Bible, and who lived by it, and who preached it to his crews twice a
37:01day.
37:03So, a man of God had been put in charge of the ship from hell.
37:08Ha ha ha, you couldn't make it up.
37:15But would William Bruce prove to be the Cutty Sark's saviour?
37:21You can run on for a long time.
37:25Run on for a long time.
37:27Unfortunately, religion always came second to a drink for Captain Bruce.
37:30And that spelt disaster for the Cutty Sark.
37:38For almost two whole years, the Cutty Sark's alcoholic captain drifted aimlessly around the Pacific, looking at the world through
37:47a haze of prayer and booze.
37:53Bad navigation by an intoxicated skipper nearly put the clipper onto the rocks.
37:58For a time, Bruce navigated the Cutty Sark, plying his two senior officers with grog.
38:04Soon, we were beginning to start.
38:12It had been exactly 706 days since the Cutty Sark had left London.
38:19Our crew were dead on our feet.
38:22Our captain was useless.
38:24There was no option.
38:26The authorities had to be informed.
38:28And what that meant was that one of Britain's great trading ships was out of business.
38:36When word of the Cutty Sark's latest calamity reached Willis, this debacle was the final straw.
38:45His flagship clipper had run to ruin.
38:49Once the great trade pioneer, she was now the laughing stock of the maritime world.
39:02The Cutty Sark's darkest chapter had come to a terrible end.
39:06But genealogist Carolyn Gurney has unearthed new information about its greatest villain, Sydney Buckle Smith.
39:17She sent me to this Kent village to meet two people who may be able to shed new light on
39:23an old mystery.
39:26I'm Merle Carmichael, originally Merle Irene Smith, and I am Sydney William Smith's granddaughter.
39:33And I'm John Sydney Smith, I'm also a Sydney Smith, and the Smith we're talking about was my grandfather.
39:41I've been hearing these wonderful dastardly stories of Sydney Buckle Smith who ruled the ocean with a rod of iron
39:48and was eventually charged with the murder of a fellow seaman and sentenced to seven years hard labour.
39:56Is that the truth?
39:58Well, I was told by my father, who was also a master mariner, that it was in self-defence and
40:06that it was manslaughter and not murder.
40:08My grandfather is always described as a bucko mate. I mean, what does that mean?
40:14It's like an Australian term.
40:16Yeah, it sounds like an Australian term. I would be quite happy to go along with the idea that he
40:21was a disciplinarian.
40:22Yes.
40:23But then he had to be.
40:24But he had to be, yes.
40:24He had to be.
40:25He was a first mate.
40:26He was in charge of a mixed crew. They were smoking opium and he was one man trying to maintain
40:32discipline
40:34amongst a group of people who weren't always willing to cooperate, shall we say.
40:40And I think in Francis he may well have had something of a troublemaker there who was looking for problems.
40:47So do you think history has misjudged your grandfather?
40:51I think, yeah, I think it has actually.
40:54My feeling is that a grave miscarriage of justice took place here.
40:58It would be good to clear his name, certainly. That would be, that would be extremely good.
41:06This is a head and shoulders of him.
41:10We'll never truly know whether Sidney Smith was a villain or a hero.
41:14But as he moved on with his life...
41:17In 1885, as the Cutty Sark lay marooned in a harbour in New York, she began to reinvent herself and
41:26re-enter the trade race with a vengeance.
41:35For the little clipper was about to begin the most celebrated chapter in her story and in the most unlikely
41:41of places.
41:43A brave new world where she would find salvation, new found riches and the lasting legacy that her owner had
41:50always dreamed of.
41:53Australia.
41:54Australia.
41:57And that all started with these shaggy creatures.
42:01Sheep.
42:02Wool was vitally important to the second stage of the Cutty Sark's illustrious history.
42:10Australia was a rapidly expanding British colony in the late 1800s.
42:15Pursuit of gold and agricultural riches made it the promised land for many merchants.
42:25But wool stood head and shoulders above everything as the most valuable commodity of them all.
42:34Australia's wool industry from its early days in the 1800s grew at an extraordinary rate.
42:41But it was the very special unique qualities of a magical wool called Merino that made the difference.
42:53This wool is seriously, seriously thick.
42:56I can feel it. It's like the thickest rug.
42:59Absolutely extraordinary.
43:02You just can't imagine that once this is tweaked out it becomes our jumpers and our sweaters and our socks
43:09or our fine wool suits.
43:12Absolutely brilliant.
43:15Wool had become the oil of its day.
43:18An extremely valuable colonial export.
43:21And John Willis saw his opportunity to follow the money.
43:29But he wasn't alone.
43:30As with tea, there was a huge demand for this new commodity.
43:34This created an annual race to collect the New Seasons wool from Australian ports
43:39and deliver it in time for the London sails.
43:43And so, the wool races were born.
43:47Just like the tea trade, Willis faced fierce competition from steamships.
43:52But in the Cutty Sark, he still had, by far, the fastest ship.
43:59What he needed now was a strong-minded individual, a natural leader of men, hard men.
44:08And, of course, an expert seaman to captain his dream ship.
44:13Someone who could, at last, bring out the true potential of his Cutty Sark.
44:20And he would find that man in Richard Woodgate, a brave and fiercely competitive captain,
44:26widely regarded as one of the finest seamen of his generation.
44:33Woodgate would become the Cutty Sark's longest-serving and most successful helmsman,
44:39sailing her for ten years and into the glory days of the wool races.
44:46The little clipper finally had the captain she had always deserved.
44:51And the world was about to see what she could do.
44:58In her very first wool voyage in 1886,
45:01the clipper sailed from Sydney to London in just 84 days,
45:06beating her rival by almost a month.
45:09The following year, she did even better,
45:12returning in just 80 days.
45:16And by 1888,
45:18Captain Woodgate had clocked up the fastest time ever recorded between Sydney and London,
45:23reaching the British capital in just 73 days.
45:29All our rivals are days astern.
45:31The Cutty Sark has fully proved her right to be considered the fastest ship in the wool trade,
45:36which at this time means the fastest ship in the world.
45:41Revenge was indeed sweet for the Cutty Sark and its owner.
45:46Woodgate was not only a master of speed,
45:49he was also noted for being able to load more cargo into his hold than any other ship in the
45:54trade.
45:58With 4,500 bales in her payload of the highest quality merino wool,
46:05Willis was making a fortune from every return trip to Australia,
46:09and at the same time achieving his dream of doing it in the fastest possible time.
46:15And then in 1891, he even outran the Britannia,
46:19the fastest steamship of her day.
46:21Willis must have been overjoyed.
46:27And with these record breaking speeds came lasting fame,
46:30both in Australia and Britain.
46:33Wool had made the Cutty Sark a star,
46:36and her exploits were helping transform this new colony
46:40into the most important trading hotspot in the world.
46:44Wool historian Lisa Murray has come to tell me more.
46:49It was just an amazing era in Australian history, and it was so important for the way that Australia's economy
46:59developed.
46:59And how important was that wonderful, beautiful, sleek, feminine ship, the Cutty Sark, in the late 19th century to all
47:07of this?
47:07She was integral.
47:09She was the clipper that took the bulk, the bulky, big woolen bales, took them after they were sold and
47:17rushed them back to Britain.
47:19She was the sort of, I guess, the symbol of the ties between Australia and Britain.
47:26And she was the symbol of, really, the strength of the Australian economy.
47:30Without ships like the Cutty Sark, Australia wouldn't have been able to export its wool, and it wouldn't be the
47:38country it is today.
47:41With the success of the wool trade, the Cutty Sark had not only forged a very special relationship between the
47:48UK and Australia,
47:49she had also become a household name on both sides of the globe.
47:54Her legend was finally born.
47:58But the Cutty Sark's success in the New World was once again about to be threatened by her old rival.
48:08By the 1890s, the steamship was now moving in on the wool industry, just as it had done with tea.
48:19Now, sadly, payloads began to dwindle yet again in the Australian ports.
48:26And with it, crew members, as the Cutty Sark began to be emptied, not just of wool, but of people,
48:34as large-scale desertion to the promised land took hold.
48:43The wool industry had introduced clipper sailors to Australia.
48:47And in this brave new world, many found the answer to their dreams.
48:51There was gold in the hills.
48:53They had golden beaches and endless hours of glorious sunshine.
48:58And to the Brit, who were fed up with cold, wet Dreech Britain.
49:03This was seen as the promised land, a land of milk and honey.
49:07And they came in their thousands.
49:09And they came in their lives.
49:14Crewmen began to use the Clipper Passage as a one-way ticket to a new life.
49:21And by the end of the 1800s, more than half of the men who sailed the Cutty Sark to Australia
49:27would desert as soon as they arrived here.
49:31And the result of this was the first truly significant migration of Brits and British culture
49:37to this new country over 10,000 miles away on the other side of the world.
49:42And these first migrants began to lay down the foundations of a Commonwealth tradition
49:48that is still alive today.
49:53And the impact of the traditions they brought with them
49:56has ingrained itself into the very fabric of Aussie life.
50:02Social historian Richard Waterhouse has come along to the cricket to tell me more.
50:08Richard, behind us here is what I regard as the quintessentially English game of cricket.
50:14And I guess for me it kind of embodies the influence,
50:18the influences that Brits and British culture has had on this continent.
50:23Well, I think it does, and British sports and the way in which they were played in Australia
50:30did a great deal to reinforce that Britishness.
50:34And it wasn't just in sport, was it? It must have been in your legal system, in your political set
50:41-ups.
50:41Generally we believe that the English legal system has played a civilising role in Australian society,
50:48and in abiding by that law, then we will become an ordered and an orderly and a democratic society.
50:57How strong were their religious influences on Australian culture?
51:01Well, generally people think of Australia as being a very irreligious country.
51:07But in fact, we became a very religious country, which resulted in turning Sunday into a very, very dull day
51:18indeed in Australia.
51:19And that lasted for a century, not until the 1960s did what we call the British Sunday begin to disappear
51:27in Australia.
51:29On the British Sunday, I remember. In my childhood in Glasgow, I always thought Sundays were the dreariest days,
51:35and inevitably they were rainy, they were wet and miserable, there was nothing to do.
51:44The Cutty Sark and its deserting sailors who were fleeing rainy Britain, certainly left the lasting mark on this land.
51:51But by 1895, the industry that brought them here was dead, as the steamer fleets put them out of business.
52:01Willis gave up on his dream of Australian wool.
52:05And I guess the brutal reality is that in the age of steam,
52:10sail ships, no matter how fast or how beautiful or how unique, were no longer part of the story.
52:19But sadly, it also meant that she would no longer be a British ship.
52:26And so the Cutty Sark was sold to a Portuguese shipping merchant, and renamed the Ferriera.
52:37Rumours circulated in Britain as to her fate.
52:40Had she been scrapped, or was she a Portuguese warship fighting in the Great War?
52:47In 1922, a retired sea captain was taking a walk one evening round this Cornish harbour,
52:54and his attention was drawn to a battered old ship moored in the bay.
52:59Now even though she had changed her shape, her look, over the years,
53:04the old boy instantly recognised her as the Cutty Sark,
53:08the very same ship that had searched past him 27 years earlier,
53:13a sight never to be forgotten.
53:16His name was Wilfred Dowman, and he was determined to save the Cutty Sark.
53:22And as luck would have it, he had the money to do it.
53:26So with great love and care, Dowman restored her to pristine clipper condition.
53:32And then, for the next 14 years, the Cutty Sark became a permanent fixture in Falmouth Harbour.
53:38A living testament to Britain's glorious maritime heritage.
53:45Following Dowman's death in 1936, the Cutty Sark became a gift to the nation,
53:51changing hands a number of times over the ensuing years,
53:54before eventually becoming part of the Greenwich National Maritime Museum in 1951.
54:01It gives me very great pleasure to come to the village today to see Cutty Sark,
54:08the last of the clippers in her permanent dry birth.
54:18That's not the end of our story.
54:20For this grand old lady of the sea had one last tale to tell.
54:28In 2007, the ship was in the midst of a multi-million pound overhaul to return her to her original
54:34Clydeside condition.
54:38But on the morning of the 21st of May, disaster struck.
54:42The 19th century T-clip of the Cutty Sark is on fire.
54:46And look at the size of that fire. It is being refurbished at the moment.
54:51Sparked by an electrical fault, pictures of the inferno that followed suggested a total catastrophe.
54:59100% we've heard from the spokeswoman of the Festival of the Blaze.
55:02These are the latest moving pictures we've just got in.
55:06But yet again, the Cutty Sark's hardy design and iconic status would ensure that much of her would be saved.
55:15Cutty Sark chairman Richard Doughty was one of the first to arrive at the scene.
55:20Didn't you have an extraordinary reaction from the fire brigade?
55:24Well, they were marvellous.
55:26Because the fire officers, instead of sending three appliances down to Cutty Sark, sent 11.
55:32And without a shadow of a doubt, we have the fire service to thank for still having Cutty Sark after
55:39all these years.
55:39You know, this is a real fighter. This ship has got through hurricanes and storms.
55:44You know, it's been reinvented so many times.
55:47But it all comes from a love and a passion for her, doesn't it?
55:49It does. That's very good from ordinary people.
55:51We had mailbags, full mailbags coming to our offices with cheques, with notes, with children's coins put in envelopes.
56:00You know, have my pocket money for Cutty Sark. It was very moving.
56:04Doesn't that cover you in goosebumps?
56:06It does.
56:08People think of it as their own and that really is what saved the ship.
56:13The Cutty Sark fire and this outpouring of support showed just how much she was loved.
56:18But ironically, it also resulted in a total rethink about how the ship should be preserved for the next generation.
56:30Fire damage had further weakened the ship's already flimsy hull.
56:34And the restoration team needed to find a way of relieving the Cutty Sark of her own crippling weight.
56:41So what did they do?
56:43Well, they decided not to float her on water, but on thin air.
56:55And this is the magnificent result.
56:59Probably one of the most detailed ship preservation projects ever undertaken.
57:05She eventually opened to the public in 2012 and they've been coming in the thousands ever since.
57:21The Cutty Sark is embedded in the public imagination because she tells the story of her glorious past.
57:30How she created lasting colonial links through trade.
57:35How she shaped and touched the places she visited and left a wonderful cultural legacy in her wake.
57:42That is why she remains a true icon of the seas.
57:48And I think of how she was dreamt up and built on the river Clyde in that small shipyard in
57:53Dumbarton, where I used to play as a boy.
57:57I don't know about you, but it certainly fills my heart with pride.
58:03Next time, I'll be looking at the role a Clyde-built steamer played in arguably the most important technological development
58:10in the modern world.
58:13Connecting Britain with the rest of the planet and changing the way we communicate, even today.
58:20But it's also the story of the crucial part that this ship played in the most famous maritime disaster in
58:27history.
58:28And of an intriguing mystery that would take over a century to solve.
58:33What on earth has this little pair of shoes got to do with the world's worst maritime disaster?
58:43Find out next Monday, a bit later at 11.30.
58:46On Wednesday, a brand new series on BBC Four with the scientific mavericks of the Industrial Revolution.
58:53Victorian sensations with Hannah Fry at nine.
58:56Next tonight, a revolution in dining out.
58:58How migrants brought new flavors to bland post-war menus with Timeshift.
59:04Can you get a similar problem with Modern appliances in particular?
Comments