Essential Information
Location |
Cutty Sark
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Price | Included with Cutty Sark entry |
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Reach up and touch the gleaming hull of Cutty Sark.
Learn all about how the ship's construction helped make Cutty Sark the fastest tea clipper in the world.
All part of your epic day out aboard Greenwich's historic ship.
A floating miracle
To preserve the shape of Cutty Sark’s hull and relieve the pressure on the keel, Cutty Sark was lifted over three metres (10 feet) as part of a landmark conservation project.
This feat of engineering allows visitors to walk beneath the ship itself, and experience a 'fish's eye view' of the historic ship.
Cutty Sark's hull is covered in copper alloy sheathing, made up of 70% copper and 30% zinc.
The hull was innovative for its composite design, which combined wooden planks with an iron 'skeleton' of frames, beams and cross bracing. The result was a very strong, rigid ship with more room for cargo – because the iron framework took up substantially less space than a wholly wooden hull.
Originally the hull was covered in Muntz metal, a composite that was developed in Birmingham. The current sheathing has the same appearance, but is more readily available today.