Hey, Gargoyle (Guest), go gargoyle some rancid butter, and, GO BACK TO BEING A SHIT.

How's that one, SORCHA, M'Deare?

I think that Cutty Sark's Cords (ropes, strings?) were tarred hemp./ It was never the fastest thing on the sea, "THERMOPYLAE" did, fter all, beat the pants off Cutty Sark. Cutty Sark is famous because of it's superb condition. Built of Teak (which does not rot) and Iron (which, unlike steel, does not rust) and it could go to sea tomorrow with no preparation (except bending on sails, of course) were it not SHAMEFULLY land locked.Almost all the sailing speed records are held by American Medium Clippers, which, to everyone's surprise, were much faster than the "Extreme" Clippers. This would not surprise today's Naval Architechts who are aware of the fact that the speed determining factor, (for all practical purposes)is "Water line length" given, two vessels, both measuring the same between perpendiculars (bow and stern), one an extreme clipper (like Cutty Sark) and the other a medium clipper (Like "Dreadnaught"), the medium clipper, being wider, therefore having a longer waterline, would be the faster. It works like this. Every vessel that is immersed at the waterline and does not plane, builds up a bow wave as it progresses through the water. This is because water, being virually incompressible, that is displaced by the moving vessel HAS TO GO SOMEWHERE./ So, it builds up this little mountain of water, at the bow, which the vessel then has to climb. The faster the vessel moves, the steeper the little hill becomes, The longer the water line length is, the shallower the grade is that they have to climb. So, if one were to apply an extreme ammount of externally applied forward drive in an attempt to go beyond the vessel's "Hull Speed" The ship then having to climb an "impossible" grade, will actually plow itself under.
What I'm trying to say here, is that Cutty Sark was not the fastest thing afloat.

Dreadnaught, of the American "Red Cross Line", a medium clipper with a crew that loved it's captain (Samuel Samuels) for his skill as a mariner and because of the humane way his crew was treated, signed on for voyage, after voyage. They knew every bit of it's hull and rigging. And, as a result (and because of it's longer water lione length) held three records at one time (and still,. to this day, holds one) For the crossing from Sandy Hook, N.Y. to the Northwest lightship in the English Channel, for the crossing from Sandy Hook to Queenstown Ireland (which now has a different name) AND FOR SAILING BACKWARDS, UNDER CONTROL, ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY NAUTICAL MILES IN FIFTY EIGHT HOURS. Which came about because they couldn't come about. They lost their rudder in a hurricane and, (the sweather being extreme)They couldn't head her up into the high seas using just the sails and drags, ( which they could have if the weather were a little milder) Dreadnaught was sailed backwards (easy to do with sails rigged "Square to the Mast") while they made a new rudder.
Love and kisses
Jody Gibson