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| Tam 'OShanter ~ John Faed |
She lies at Greenwich; all masts and spars; her lower hull hidden for shame; for the benefit of those visitors who are willing to pay.
The figurehead – that forward-looking emblem of progress at sea; that sense of all that goes on behind her bared breast, bloody and harsh; necessary to that progress, is of no import and to her; intent on the horses tail that she holds up to the future.
In fact, the ship itself, her wooden hull on an iron frame, may well be no more than Nannie’s cutty sark, her short nightdress, that which aroused Tam O’Shanter to make his presence known to the coven in Burns’ tale.
It was Nannie the witch in her cutty sark who chased the mounted Tam, he narrowly escaping by crossing the river Doon, Nannie having to be content with snatching the tail off Tam’s horse, Meg.
As everybody knows, a witch cannot cross water, can she Rabbie?
Nevertheless, The Cutty Sark, built on the river Leven, would carry Nannie’s likeness across the great oceans; onward to the colonies for tea; for wool; for profit in the face of the looming industrial revolution and the advent of steam as a mode of propulsion; steam that would render the swift, but wind powered, Cutty Sark redundant.
The figurehead – that forward-looking emblem of progress at sea; that sense of all that goes on behind her bared breast, bloody and harsh; necessary to that progress, is of no import and to her; intent on the horses tail that she holds up to the future.
In fact, the ship itself, her wooden hull on an iron frame, may well be no more than Nannie’s cutty sark, her short nightdress, that which aroused Tam O’Shanter to make his presence known to the coven in Burns’ tale.
It was Nannie the witch in her cutty sark who chased the mounted Tam, he narrowly escaping by crossing the river Doon, Nannie having to be content with snatching the tail off Tam’s horse, Meg.
As everybody knows, a witch cannot cross water, can she Rabbie?
Nevertheless, The Cutty Sark, built on the river Leven, would carry Nannie’s likeness across the great oceans; onward to the colonies for tea; for wool; for profit in the face of the looming industrial revolution and the advent of steam as a mode of propulsion; steam that would render the swift, but wind powered, Cutty Sark redundant.
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| Photo by Pisces Iscariot |
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