1870-1878:  The China Tea Years

Cutty Sark by a Chinese Artist, 1870s

On 16th February 1870, Cutty Sark left London bound for Shanghai, via the Cape of Good Hope, on her first voyage.  Commanded by Captain George Moodie, she carried "large amounts of wine, spirits and beer” (Captain’s abstract log).  The arrival of the ship at Shanghai, with “manufactured goods”, is listed in The North China Herald of 2nd June 1870.  Departing with around 1,450 tons of tea on 25th June, she arrived back in London on 13th October 1870.

This is the first of 8 voyages the ship successfully made to China in pursuit of tea.  However, Cutty Sark never became the fastest ship on the tea trade.  Dogged by bad winds and misfortune, she never lived up to the high expectations of her owner during these years.  The closest the ship came to winning the tea race was in 1872, when she had the opportunity to race the Thermopylae head-to-head for the first time. 

After arriving at Shanghai in late May 1872, she met the Thermopylae when loading her tea cargo.  With both sailing from Woosung on 17th June 1872, the two ships closely matched each other through the China Sea and into the Indian Ocean.  By 7th August, and with a good tail wind, Cutty Sark found herself a good 400 miles ahead of the Thermopylae.  On 15th August, disaster struck when Cutty Sark’s rudder gives way.  After reconstructing the rudder twice in heavy seas, the ship arrived back at London on 19th October, around 7 days after her rival.  The courage and determination of Captain Moodie and his crew won Cutty Sark great credit, but Moodie retired from his command of the ship due to stress and the ship was never to get this close to winning the tea race again.