Thermopylae

About

Thermopylae was a clipper built at Aberdeen in 1868 by Walter Hood & Co, to a design by Bernard Waymouth, for the Aberdeen Line. She was one of the fastest sailing ships ever built, and on her maiden voyage she ran from Gravesend to Melbourne in 63 days.

She carried tea from China through the 1870s. In 1872 she raced Cutty Sark home from Shanghai and won, arriving in London in 115 days, a week ahead, after Cutty Sark lost her rudder. From 1879 she carried wool from Australia, and later timber.

In 1895 she was sold to Portugal, renamed Pedro Nunes, and used by the navy as a training ship. She was sunk by torpedoes off Cascais, at the mouth of the Tagus, in 1907.

From Thermopylae (clipper).