Served as an impressive reminder of the sailing ships of the nineteenth century, the
Cutty Sark can still be seen at Greenwich. She is anchored on dry land and visited by
thousands of people each year. Before they were replaced by steamships, sailing
vessels like the Cutty Sark were used to carry tea from China and wool from Australia. On June 18th, 1872, regarded as the two fastest sailing ships in the world, the Cutty
Sark and the Thermopylae set out from Shanghai and competed against each other to
reach England. This race, which lasted for exactly four months, indicated that the great
tradition of ship with sails came to an end and the new era of steamships began. After acrossing the Inidan Ocean, the Cutty Shark took the lead. It seemed certain that she
would be the first ship home, but during the race she had lots of bad luck. On her trip to England, she caught a heavy storm and her rudder was torn away. This made
impossible to steer the Cutty Sark and a wooden rudder was soon equipped. Fearing
that the wooden rudder would be torn away, she had to lower down her speed and
therefore lost her head. Until she was fitted with a new rudder at a port of the Equator,
the Cutty Sark was able to travell at trememdous speed and finally arrived in England a week after the Thermopylae. Though she was defeated, she had made a good show of this race. If she had not lost her rudder, the Cutty Sark would have won the race
definitely .
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