What Happened to Muntz Metal? The Brass That Sheathed the Clipper Ships

In November 1869, at Dumbarton, Scotland, Jock Willis's new tea clipper Cutty Sark went into the River Leven with yellow metal specified from the keel to the eighteen-foot mark: sixty parts copper, forty parts zinc. It wasted away in the sea, and that flaw was the whole reason it worked. So what happened to Muntz metal? This is the full story: the teredo and the fouled hull; HMS Alarm and the bad effect of copper upon iron; George Frederick Muntz, the bearded Birmingham radical who patented the alloy in 1832 and sold it below cost to get anyone to try it; Sir Humphry Davy's protectors, which stopped the copper corroding and let the ships foul; the Snow Squall and the Cutty Sark; the tack hammers, dezincification and the battery between brass and iron; iron hulls, bottom paint and the Suez Canal; the argument over why the Royal Navy held out for so long; and where you can still stand under a yellow metal hull today. SOURCES Mark Staniforth, "The Introduction and Use of Copper Sheathing: A History," Bulletin of the Australian Institute for Maritime Archaeology (1985) Peter M. Solar and Aidan Kane, "Protecting ships against shipworms and fouling during the Industrial Revolution era," International Journal for the History of Engineering and Technology (2024) Dictionary of National Biography (1894), "Muntz, George Frederick," by Samuel Timmins Grace's Guide to British Industrial History: George Frederick Muntz; Patent Metal Co; Muntz's Metal Co; Vivian and Sons; Imperial Metal Industries Vin Callcut, oldcopper.org: Muntz Metal Co; HMS Victory Copper Sheathing Dr. E. Lee Spence, "Muntz Metal Hull Sheathing," shipwrecks.com Henry S. Rawdon, U.S. Bureau of Standards Technologic Paper 103 Royal Museums Greenwich: Cutty Sark hull page; object ZBA7815, Muntz metal sheathing The Building Conservation Directory, "Cutty Sark" Rick Spilman, Old Salt Blog, "Mr. Muntz's Marvelous Metal and the Cutty Sark" (2012) Maine Maritime Museum, Snow Squall: An American Clipper Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum, Victorian Collections, Schomberg sheathing record Queensland Museum, "Copper-alloy sheathing from Coolangatta" (2017) Aberdeen Archives, Gallery & Museums, "The Last Great Clipper Race Remembered" Soundings, "Copper Sheathing and Sailing Ships" Naval Marine Archive, The Canadian Collection, Copper Sheathing chronology Power magazine, on titanium condenser tubing Wikipedia: "Muntz metal"; "Copper sheathing"; "Cutty Sark"; "Thermopylae (clipper)"; "Snow Squall (clipper)"; "Flying Cloud (clipper)"; "Vivian & Sons" DISCLAIMER This video is for educational purposes. It is based on the sources listed above; where sources disagree on a figure or a date, the narration says so. Nothing here is professional engineering, safety or restoration advice. The narration uses a synthetic voice, and some illustrations are reconstructions. Correction policy: if I got a number wrong, tell me with your source and I'll pin the fix. The machine gets the credit. The material does the work. #MUNTZMETAL #brass #cuttysark #metallurgy