The Great Tea Race begins:

America had developed the Baltimore clippers to outrun the British fleet during the American War of Independence. The Baltimores' extra spread of sail and sleek hulls meant that they could 'clip' that last inch of wind from their sails. Exploiting the change in British trade restrictions, the Americans entered the China tea trade.

In 1850, the American clipper Oriental beat the British tea carriers back to Britain, earning itself twice as much as the British ships for its cargo. But the British soon fought back, building wonderful clippers of their own that were the Concords of their time. The trade route had become a ferociously competitive battleground.

and ends with one famous survivor: the Cutty Sark. More of the ship's history here:

Among the most famous old sailing ships still extant, Cutty Sark was one of the last clippers built for the China tea trade between the 1840s and 1870s. Ordered by Captain John Willis of London, her hull was of composite construction, with teak planking on iron frames. Her design is thought to have been inspired by Willis's The Tweed, a Bombay-built, full-rigged ship that first sailed as the paddle steamer Punjaub. Cutty Sark's name is Scottish for "short shirt" and comes from the Robert Burns poem "Tam O'Shanter," in which Tam secretly spies on the witch, Nannie, who is clad in a cutty sark; the reasons for Willis's choice of name are obscure.

The TALL SHIPS PARADE in Narragansett Bay is back on ! Scheduled for noon on July 15th, the fleet will assemble off Brenton Point, sail under the Pell Bridge, and around Gould Isalnd, back under the bridge, and into Newport Harbor.

For further information go to ASTA's webpage:

www.sailtraining.org

e-mail: tallships2004@yahoo.com