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",
Clipper route "Cutty Sark" made the fastest passage on this route by a clipper, in 72 days. "Thermopylae" made the slightly shorter passage from London to Melbourne, , in just 61 days in 1868–69. The following map traces the outbound route of the 1874 voyage from London to Adelaide, South Australia, of the clipper ship "City of Adelaide", which today is the world's oldest surviving clipper ship. The latitudes and longitudes are obtained from the surviving diary of 21-year-old passenger James McLauchlan. The return passage continued east from Australia; ships stopping at Wellington would pass through the Cook Strait, but otherwise this