Appearence  

Under full sail, heeling over slightly, and rising and falling easily through the seas, a clipper must have presented a magnificent sight from another passing ship. Many eye-witnesses have left us enthralling descriptions; how sometimes the gleaming copper would be exposed down to the turn of bilge in the trough of a sea, or the keel lifting clear from the forefoot to nearly one-third of the length.

  The occasional light green hull of some tea clippers although beautiful was not as impressive as the black. The thin white ribband just above the copper line which was painted on the Cutty Sark in her retirement days was not authentic for her or any other tea clipper, and was a detraction.
Black and white painted ports, inherited from the genuine gunports of East Indiamen, were carried on by the Blackwall frigates, the transatlantic packet ships, the iron clippers in the emigrant trade, and finally the big windjammers, but there does not seem to be any record of either British or American tea clippers having them, although it is possible that one or two of the early Americans were exceptional-perhaps the Houqua.

  Figureheads as a rule were plain white possibly with the hem of a garment in gold leaf, or the hair in black. Some life-like colouring is occasionally mentioned for figures in human form, as also for an emblem such as a heraldic shield. American ships sometimes had a heraldic beast or bird which was covered with gold leaf, the eagle being popular, as on the Challenge where a large eagle spread its wings into the flaring hollow each side of the stemhead.

  Masts and spars looked their best when varnished or oiled on the natural wood and blackened at the mast doublings, from the futtock shrouds attachments to the caps including the tops, and at each yardarm extremity. Made masts with iron hoops and vertical grooved recesses between them often had the grooves picked out in white, with the mast and bands in black or just the bands alone in black. This looked elegant too and was seen more often on American ships. In other schemes masts and spars were all white, pale pink, light buff or completel y black. Paintings or models which show yardarms only (that is, the outer extremity) as white on a natural wood or black spar, are not authentic. This question was raised many years ago, when men who lived through the tea clipper era were still alive, and they denied ever seeing such a painting scheme, nor , do any contemporary paintings or models show it.

  Decks were oiled, varnished, or scrubbed and bleached almost white, according to the nature of the timber used. Margin planks around deck structures were commonly of teak even if the remainder of the deck was  of a softer and lighter coloured wood, and the caulked seams in the waist of the ship were black