Burns and the Cutty Sark

The Cutty Sark is a British clipper ship that was built in Dumbarton, Scotland in 1869. She was one of the last tea clippers to be built, but her beautiful and sleek design was cast aside by the arrival of the newly developed and more efficient steamships.

The Cutty Sark spent only a few years in the tea trade before turning to the wool trade from Australia, holding the record time to Britain for ten years.

After some time as a cargo ship and then a training vessel, she was finally moved to dry dock in Greenwich, London, as a permanent display for the public.

Now let’s look at the figurehead. The picture shows the rather predictable bare­breasted maiden holding what looks like a clump of hair. It is in fact a horse’s tail. The maiden seems quite angry. Her name is Nanny, and here’s the background.

In Robert Burns’ epic poem Tam O’Shanter, our hero Tam is riding his horse, Maggie, home on a stormy night. He happens across a dance party being held by witches and warlocks in an old, abandoned church.

FYI: In the context of the poem, a ‘sark’ is a nightdress or shirt. A ‘cutty sark’ is a short nightdress.

The witches are old, withered hags in flannel sarks, except for a recent addition to their number, Nanny –a young and beautiful maiden, dancing with gay abandon. She is wearing a cutty sark of fine linen. Burns writes

‘Her cutty sark – o’ paisley hairn - that while a lassie she had worn – in longitude, though sorely scanty…‘

Tam is discovered admiring Nanny and is chased by all. He races away on Maggie, hurrying for safety at a nearby bridge that witches cannot cross. But Nanny, being the youngest and fastest, lunges for Maggie as she leaps for the bridge. Tam escapes with his life, but poor old Maggie left behind

‘… her ain grey tail!’

And that’s the link between Robbie Burns and the Cutty Sark!