Editing Cutty Sark (section)

===Competition from steamers===
''Cutty Sark''{{'}}s launch coincided with the opening of the [[Suez Canal]] to shipping in 1869. Her first trip encountered significant competition with steamships. The route from the Far East to London (and many other European ports) through the Suez Canal was shorter by about {{convert|3300|nmi}}, compared to sailing round the Cape of Good Hope.<ref name="suezcanal.gov.eg">{{cite web|url=http://www.suezcanal.gov.eg/English/About/Pages/WhySuezCanal.aspx|title=Why Suez Canal?|website=Suez Canal Authority}}</ref> The route round Africa is in excess of {{cvt|14000|nmi}}. Typically a clipper might log significantly more than that by planning her route for favourable winds. Whilst it was possible for a sailing vessel to take a tug through the canal, this was difficult and expensive. Furthermore, sailing conditions in the northern [[Red Sea]] were unsuited to the design of a tea clipper,<ref name=Jarvis/> so they still had to sail around Africa. The ability of a steamer to make, for example, {{convert|10|kn}} continuously, versus the fastest clipper voyage averaging under {{convert|6.5|kn}} over a longer distance, gave steamships not only a more predictable voyage time, but a substantially quicker one.{{efn|For this arithmetic, the speed of a steamer is that of [[SS Agamemnon (1865)|SS ''Agamemnon'']]. The "fastest clipper voyage" is that of [[Ariel (clipper)|''Ariel'']] in 1865. Ariel's log for that voyage shows about {{cvt|15800|nmi}} for the voyage, which took 99 days.{{r|Lubbock|pp=269–285}}}}

Less obviously, steamship design had taken a large step forward in 1866 with [[SS Agamemnon (1865)|''Agamemnon'']], using higher boiler pressure and a compound engine, so obtaining a large improvement in fuel efficiency. Ships of this type could compete with clippers before the Suez Canal opened.<ref name="Jarvis">{{cite book|last=Jarvis|first=Adrian|editor1-first=Robert|editor1-last=Gardiner|editor2-first=Basil|editor2-last=Greenhill|title=The Advent of Steam – The Merchant Steamship before 1900|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|date=1993|pages=158–159|chapter=Chapter 9: Alfred Holt and the Compound Engine|isbn=0-85177-563-2}}</ref>

When the tea clippers arrived in China in 1870, they found a big increase in the number of steamers, which were in high demand. The rate of freight to London that was given to steamers was nearly twice that paid to the sailing ships. Additionally, the insurance premium for a cargo of tea in a steamer was substantially less than for a sailing vessel. So successful were the steamers using the Suez Canal that, in 1871, 45 were built in Clyde shipyards alone for Far Eastern trade.{{r|MacGregor 1983|p=209}}

The numbers of tea clippers sailing to China each year steadily reduced, with many ships being sold and moving to general cargo work. Costs were kept to a minimum and rigs were often reduced to [[barque]] so that a smaller crew was needed.