Cutty Sark wind. The ship was named after Cutty-sark, the nickname of the witch Nannie Dee in Robert Burns's 1791 poem "Tam o' Shanter". The ship's figurehead, the original of which has been attributed to carver Fredrick Hellyer of Blackwall, is a stark white carving of a bare-breasted Nannie Dee with long black hair holding a grey horse's tail in her hand. In the poem she wore a linen (Scots: a short chemise or undergarment), that she had been given as a child, which explains why it was "cutty", or in other words far too short. The erotic sight of her dancing
Cutty Sark her. Dowman died in 1936 and the ship was sold to the Incorporated Thames Nautical Training College, HMS "Worcester" at Greenhithe, leaving Falmouth for her last journey under sail in 1938. The ship was crewed by cadets, 15-year-old Robert Wyld steering the ship during the voyage. Ian Bryce, DSC, the last surviving crew member on the historic journey from Falmouth to the Thames died, aged 89, on 11 December 2011. At Greenhithe "Cutty Sark" acted as an auxiliary vessel to for sail training drill, but by 1950 she had become surplus to requirements. From February to October 1951 she was