The mosses, waters, slaps, and stiles,
That lie between us and our hame,
Whare sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.
Tam O’Shanter: Robert Burns
As a kid who loved sea stories, the Cutty Sark, fastest tea clipper ship ever built, held a special place in my imagination.
Plus you gotta love a ship that was named after a barely dressed witch who chased the drunken farmer in a classic Robert Burns poem.
But when I went to see her, in Greenwich, UK, I’ll admit it was something of a letdown.
They’d pulled her out of the water and rudely jammed her hull into the middle of a tacky Howard Johnson-looking museum. Like a glorified hood ornament.
Which is why, when I pulled out my camera, I concentrated on the sum of her beautiful parts – rigging, prow, bowsprit and other features that were still unemcumbered by museum tack.
And then I superimposed those images against background shots of dark clouds, blue seas and stormy weather that I had previously captured here, there and everywhere.
To create the impression that the old sea witch had set sail once again.
To once more test herself against the elements.
And all the force that nature could bring to bear against her deceptively fragile looking rigging.
And slender hull.
I even cheated a bit and ran some of my photos through an art app.
Because a legendary ship, a sea witch no less, that lives still in my imagination must surely qualify as a work of art.
Now, wha this tale o’ truth shall read,
Ilk man and mother’s son, take heed,
Whene’er to drink you are inclin’d,
Or cutty-sarks run in your mind,
Think, ye may buy the joys o’er dear,
Remember Tam o’ Shanter’s mear.
FreeGNV 