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
Blackadder (clipper) the new ships based upon "The Tweed". Although similar below the water and of very similar size, the two ships looked somewhat different from "Cutty Sark". Maudsley and Co. were contracted to construct the ship, although they were an engineering company relatively inexperienced with whole ship design. This was not dissimilar to Willis' choice in builders for "Cutty Sark" which was also a new and inexperienced company, which in that instance became bankrupt before "Cutty Sark" was completed. The contract was signed in June 1869 and the ship launched March 1870, to the highest Lloyds standards and using the best