I thought you all might like to see this and contemplate the ocean. It is the Cutty Sark, beautiful thing that she is, on a wave encountered according to her log, on the 19th of June 1891. 

She was in the wool trade at that time, and considering that the wool clip left Australia in September, late June would have put her somewhere in the '60's, halfway from Capetown to Sydney. She would have rounded Tasmania and entered Sydney in August where she discharged her cargo of manufactured goods and migrants, loaded wool, which was literally screwed into the ship with large screw presses. She would then have headed out to the Southern Ocean again on her way to Cape Horn.

The ship is 212 feet long, which makes the wave about 85 to 90 feet. The rudder, if you look carefully, is almost entirely out of the water. Not bad for a crew of about 20, no engine, no radio, no electricity, no GPS, just a lot of skill and experience.

The painting came from a post card, and is in the Greenwich Maritime Museum.

 

The Cutty Sark is today preserved as a museum ship, and is a popular tourist attraction near the centre of Greenwich town, in south east London. The  National Maritime Museum, the former Greenwich Hospital and Greenwich Park is nearby. She is a prominent landmark on the route of the London Marathon, and she flies signal flags on her ensign staff reading "JKWS", which is the code representing Cutty Sark in the International Signal Code, which was introduced in 1857.

-John Carlton