Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Wednesday 30 October 2013

The Cutty Sark, Greenwich

was definitely worth a visit although actually in reality there wasn't much to see if the truth be told. The SS Great Britain Collection at Bristol is far more interesting but then I may well be very unfair to the Cutty Sark here. It is an extremely impressive restoration but I was expecting more......some artefacts; more about the tea trade; perhaps it just hasn't survived.

The ship was however extremely impressive and I had a pleasant hour wandering and having a bite to eat in the café beneath her hull (yep - I think probably the best placed café in the whole of London  - where else could you eat cakes beneath a 280' long clipper?)

the bow end with a rather impressive bowsprit

this isn't the original rudder - its a jury rigged rudder

one of the few displays







this is how the iron work looks - skeleton style

these were the only sort of artefacts on board


a model of what she would have looked like


she didn't only carry coal; wool from Australia was another cargo

up towards her bow, port side 

exterior gunnel's

the ship's bell
Cutty Sark is a Scottish girl's short nightdress style undergarment

just one of the many, many......many blocks in the rigging

way off in the distance....Nando's and across the river, Canary Wharf

three masts, miles of rigging and loads of spars

how did they remember which rope did what?

the door to the port heads
lovely varnish work

I need to learn how to do this in Arwen!

ship shape and Bristol fashion

that wood is beautiful


over there is the Shard, the latest addition to the London skyline

we mused on what it must have been like up there during the morning gusts of 70 mph!!!!


crew quarters


all that hemp
I wonder how many miles of rigging are on board?




a mind boggling array of spars

the stern end with lifeboats
on the left are the captain's and crew quarters

whipping that is exemplary

the chicken coop

on the mizzen mast

the ship's wheel and the stern rudder gears

ship's binnacle compass


the captain's quarters

mess area

ship's pantry

the ship's fire buckets


underneath - the gallery and cafe




hey I remember these tins as a kid.........
a treat was mum allowing us to dip a spoon into the treacle

looking along the keel to the bow

a collection of ship's figures

the copper clad hull, only it is a mixture of copper and something else which I forget!

a decent latte

when you have a huge yummy choice of cakes and you cannot decide which to have, do the sensible thing, buy them all!

above the hull of the old ships; below the hull of the new clippers
no wonder they were faster!

more of the impressive collection of ships figurines


all come from ships from the 1800's

I was rather taken with this one

looking along the keel from the bow


some rudder strap!

2 comments:

Bursledon Blogger said...

It's 40 odd years since I've been on cutty sark, but I can still recall that figerhead with the fez, they used to be displayed down in the lower hold, finny what sticks in your mind.

steve said...

I'd have liked to have known more about the ship head figures but here was scant information on them
Steve