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[ Graphical: Channel4 Homepage ]
1812 The Baltimore clippers are created by the Americans during the War of Independence in order to outrun the British fleet.
1834 Until this date, the English merchant East India Company holds the monopoly on the China tea trade.
1849 The British Empire ends the restriction of only British ships being allowed to trade at British ports.
1850 The American clipper Oriental beats its British rivals and brings the first tea home to London.
1866 As part of The Great Tea Race, four of the greatest clippers leave China within two days of each other. Ariel and Taeping both complete the journey in remarkable 90 days. Serica arrives on the same tide and Fiery Cross two days later.
1867 George Thompson of the Aberdeen White Star line commissions a new extreme clipper, Thermopylae.
1868 Thermopylae is launched. Mastered by Captain Kemball, it completes its maiden voyage from Gravesend to Melbourne in a record-breaking 63 days.
1868 Captain John 'Jock' Willis commissions a rival for the Thermopylae – the Cutty Sark.
1869 The opening of the Suez Canal threatens the future of the tea clippers.
1869 Cutty Sark is launched from Dumbarton in Scotland on 22 November.
1870 Cutty Sark makes her maiden run out to Shanghai in February.
1872 Cutty Sark and Thermopylae meet for their first head-to-head race. Cutty Sark's rudder is lost in a storm and Thermopylae wins the race. Incredibly, Cutty Sark completes the race just seven days later with a temporary rudder.
1885 The Suez Canal finally robs the clippers of the tea trade. The clippers turn to plying the Australian wool trade. With a new master, Captain Woodget, Cutty Sark makes a 77-day record passage on the 13,000-mile journey from London to Sydney.
1885 In October, Thermopylae and Cutty Sark meet up for a final head-to-head. Cutty Sark breaks all previous records, taking 73 days on the journey back from Sydney to London. Thermopylae arrives a week later.
1885-1895 Cutty Sark beats Thermopylae every year on the wool run, breaking new records.
1895 Willis sells the now unprofitable Cutty Sark to Portuguese merchants. She is renamed Ferreira.
1895 Thermopylae is sold to the Portuguese navy and renamed the Pedro Nunes, after the Portuguese explorer.
1906 Thermopylae is deliberately torpedoed during target practise by the Portuguese navy.
1922 Cutty Sark is sold to Cornishman Captain Dowman who begins restoring her to her former glory.
1938 Cutty Sark is donated to the Thames Nautical Training College where she becomes a training vessel for the merchant navy.
1954 Cutty Sark makes her final journey home to dry dock in Greenwich, London. She is now a popular tourist attraction, protected by the Cutty Sark Trust and is the last remaining example of the great clippers.
Cutty Sark and the Great Clippers
Graphics version (includes layout and images)