Cutty-sark (witch) Cutty-sark (witch) "Cutty sark" is 18th-century Scots for "short chemise" or "short undergarment". Hyphenated, Cutty-sark was a nickname given to the witch Nannie Dee, a fictional character created by Robert Burns in his "Tam o' Shanter", after the garment she wore. The figurehead of the tea clipper "Cutty Sark" is named after the character and a brand of Scotch whisky is named in turn for the ship. "Cutty" or "cuttie" (the diminutive form of "cuttit", from Early Middle English "cutte", "kutte", "cute" "ugly") is "short" or "stumpy". "Sark" or "serk" (from Old English "serc"; Old Norse "serk") is a "shift",
Medium clipper frame; the strength of the iron frame protected the composite clipper from the hogging and sagging that had bedevilled its predecessor, the extreme clipper. The surviving clipper ships of the world as of 2016, such as "Cutty Sark", are clipper-built composite ships; no true extreme clipper or medium clipper ships are known to survive. Medium clipper A medium clipper is a type of clipper designed for both cargo carrying capacity and speed. An evolutionary adaptation of the extreme clipper, the medium clipper had been invented by 1851, when the hull type appeared in U.S. shipyards. Medium clippers continued to be