The nineteenth century was a period of great technological development in Britain, and for shipping the major changes were from wind to steam power, and from wood to iron and steel.

19世纪是英国发生巨大技术发展的时期，对造船而言主要的转变在于从风能转向蒸汽能，从木材转向钢铁。

The fastest commercial sailing vessels of all time were clippers, three-masted ships built to transport goods around the world, although some also took passengers. From the 1840s until 1869, when the Suez Canal opened and steam propulsion was replacing sail, clippers dominated world trade. Although many were built, only one has survived more or less intact: Cutty Sark, now on display in Greenwich, southeast London.

史上速度最快的商业帆船是快速帆船，这种三桅船被用来在世界范围内运输货物，尽管其中的一些也运送乘客。从19世纪40年代到1869年，随着苏伊士运河的开通以及蒸汽动力逐渐替代船帆，快速帆船成为了世界贸易的主导。尽管人们建造了很多船只，只有一艘几乎被完整地保存下来：卡蒂萨克号，它如今陈列在伦敦东南部的格林威治。

Cutty Sark's unusual name comes from the poem Tam O'Shanter by the Scottish poet Robert Bums. Tam, a farmer, is chased by a witch called Nannie, who is wearing a 'cutty sark' - an old Scottish name for a short nightdress. The witch is depicted in Cutty Sark's figurehead - the carving of a woman typically at the front of old sailing ships. In legend, and in Bums's poem, witches cannot cross water, so this was a rather strange choice of name for a ship.

卡蒂萨克这个有些特殊的名字来自苏格兰诗人 Robert Burn的诗歌 Tam O’shanter。Tam是一位农民，他被一名叫做 Nannie的女巫追逐，女巫穿着“卡蒂萨克”，这是一种古老的苏格兰短睡衣的名字。女巫的形象被用作卡蒂萨克的船头雕像，也就是在古老帆船船头雕刻的女性人像。在传说以及 Burn的诗歌中，女巫是无法穿过水域的。因此这个名字的选择确实非常奇怪。

Cutty Sark was built in Dumbarton, Scotland, in 1869, for a shipping company owned by John Willis. To carry out construction, Willis chose a new shipbuilding firm, Scott & Linton, and ensured that the contract with them put him in a very strong position. In the end, the firm was forced out of business, and the ship was finished by a competitor.

卡蒂萨克号于1869年在苏格兰登巴顿为一家属于 John Willis的航运公司建造。为了完成建设Willis选择了一家新的造船厂， Scott & Linton，并确保在与他们的合同中处于非常优势的地位。最终，这家工厂被迫破产，船只由一家竞争者建造完成。

Willis's company was active in the tea trade between China and Britain, where speed could bring shipowners both profits and prestige, so Cutty Sark was designed to make the journey more quickly than any other ship. On her maiden voyage, in 1870, she set sail from London, carrying large amounts of goods to China. She returned laden with tea, making the journey back to London in four months. However, Cutty Sark never lived up to the high expectations of her owner, as a result of bad winds and various misfortunes. On one occasion, in 1872, the ship and a rival clipper, Thermopylae, left port in China on the same day. Crossing the Indian Ocean, Cutty Sark gained a lead of over 400 miles, but then her rudder was severely damaged in stormy seas, making her impossible to steer. The ship's crew had the daunting task of repairing the rudder at sea, and only succeeded at the second attempt. Cutty Sark reached London a week after Thermopylae.

Willis的公司在中英两国间的茶叶贸易方面非常活跃，速度会给船主带来利润和声望。因此设计卡蒂萨克号就是为了使速度比其他船只更快。她于1870年首航，从伦敦出发，带着大量货物到达中国。船只装载着茶叶返航，用了四个月时间回到伦敦。然而，由于恶劣的天气和各种不走运。卡蒂萨克号并没有达到主人的高预期。在1872年，有一次卡蒂萨克号和另一艘帆船 Thermopylae在同一天离开中国港口。她们穿越印度洋，卡蒂萨克号领先400英里，但之后她的船舵在被波涛汹涌的大海中严重损坏，使其无法驾驶。船员们不得不在海上修理船舵，并在第二次尝试中才取得成功。卡蒂萨克号晚于Thermopylae一星期到达伦敦。

Steam ships posed a growing threat to clippers, as their speed and cargo capacity increased. In addition, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the same year that Cutty Sark was launched, had a serious impact. While steam ships could make use of the quick, direct route between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, the canal was of no use to sailing ships, which needed the much stronger winds of the oceans, and so had to sail a far greater distance. Steam ships reduced the journey time between Britain and China by approximately two months.

随着速度和货物运载量的增加，蒸汽船给快速帆船带来的威胁越来越多。此外，苏伊士运河于1869年开通，这也是卡蒂萨克号建造完成的时间，运河的开通有很大影响，蒸汽船可以使用地中海和红海之间快捷、直接的线路，运河对帆船来说是没用的，帆船需要大海更强的风力，因此需要航行更远距离。蒸汽船将往返于英国和中国的航程缩小了将近两个小时。

By 1878, tea traders weren't interested in Cutty Sark, and instead, she took on the much less prestigious work of carrying any cargo between any two ports in the world. In 1880, violence aboard the ship led ultimately to the replacement of the captain with an incompetent drunkard who stole the crew's wages. He was suspended from service, and a new captain appointed. This marked a turnaround and the beginning of the most successful period in Cutty Sark's working life, transporting wool from Australia to Britain. One such journey took just under 12 weeks, beating every other ship sailing that year by around a month.

到了1878年，卡蒂萨克号不再受到茶叶贸易者的青睐，相反，她承担起了一些并不重要的任务，在世界上任意两个港口间运送各种货物。1880年，船只上的暴力最终导致船长更换为一位没有能力的醉汉，他拿走了船员们的薪水。他被禁止继续在这里工作，并任命了一位新的船长。这意味着转机的到来，并开始了卡蒂萨克号服役期间最成功的一段时期，船只负责将羊毛从澳洲运送到英国。一次这样的航行用时不到12周。比当年任何船只都节省了大约一个月。

The ship's next captain, Richard Woodget, was an excellent navigator, who got the best out of both his ship and his crew. As a sailing ship, Cutty Sark depended on the strong trade winds of the southern hemisphere, and Woodget took her further south than any previous captain, bringing her dangerously close to icebergs off the southern tip of South America. His gamble paid off, though, and the ship was the fastest vessel in the wool trade for ten years.

船只的下一任船长， Richard Woodge，是一位出色的领航员，使他的船只和船员发挥了最充分的作用。作为帆船，卡蒂萨克号依靠南半球的强烈信风， Woodget比之前历任船长将船只带到了更向南的地方，接近危险的南美洲南端的冰同，他的冒险得到了回报，卡蒂萨克号成为十年间进行羊毛贸易最快速的船只。

As competition from steam ships increased in the 1890s, and Cutty Sark approached the end of her life expectancy, she became less profitable. She was sold to a Portuguese firm, which renamed her Ferreira. For the next 25 years, she again carried miscellaneous cargoes around the world.

随着19世纪90年代蒸汽船竞争的增加，卡蒂萨克号到达了使用寿命的末期，她不再有那么强的盈利能力。她被卖到了一家葡萄牙工厂，并被重命名为 Ferreira号。在之后的25年间，她又在世界范围内运送各种各样的货物。

Badly damaged in a gale in 1922, she was put into Falmouth harbour in southwest England, for repairs. Wilfred Dowman, a retired sea captain who owned a training vessel, recognised her and tried to buy her, but without success. She returned to Portugal and was sold to another Portuguese company. Dowman was determined, however, and offered a high price: this was accepted, and the ship returned to Falmouth the following year and had her original name restored.

她在1922年的一场大风中受到巨大破坏，被送到了英国西南部的法尔茅斯湾进行维修。一位拥有一艘训练船的退休船长 Wilfred Dowman认出了卡蒂萨克号并想要购买她，但并未成功。她回到葡萄牙被卖给了另一家葡萄牙公司。然而 Dowman下定决心并给出高价，价格被对方接受，船只在之后的一年回到法尔茅斯湾并恢复使用最初的名字。

Dowman used Cutty Sark as a training ship, and she continued in this role after his death. When she was no longer required, in 1954, she was transferred to dry dock at Greenwich to go on public display. The ship suffered from fire in 2007, and again, less seriously, in 2014, but now Cutty Sark attracts a quarter of a million visitors a year.

Dowman使用卡蒂萨克号作为训练船，在他死后船只继续扮演着这样的角色。1954年，她不再有航行任务，被改用作干船坞并在格林威治进行公开展览。卡蒂萨克号在2007年遭遇火灾，并在2014年再次经历了一次不太严重的火灾，如今每年能吸引25万游客前去参观。