Britain's most important site of maritime history goes up in smoke

by GilraenH @ 2007-05-21 - 11:21:47

The Cutty Sark has gone up in flames

This is a terrible shame, although lucky that so much of it was away from the site for restoration. This must be devastating for all those who worked on the restoration project. They've certialy got a challenge ahead now! Here's the full news story:

A fire which severely damaged the famous 19th Century ship Cutty Sark is being treated as suspicious by police.

The ship, which was undergoing a major restoration project, is kept in a dry dock at Greenwich in south-east London.

An area around the 138-year-old tea clipper had to be evacuated when the fire broke out in the early hours.

A Cutty Sark Trust spokesman said 50% of the ship was removed for restoration work. He said the Trust was devastated but it could have been worse.

Charred planking

The decks of the ship are said to be unsalvageable. But much of the boat, including the masts, had already been removed as part of the restoration work.

Chris Livett, Chairman of Cutty Sark Enterprises, speaking at the scene, said: "We had removed 50% of the planking, so 50% of the planking wasn't on site and that's safe and secure.

"And from where I stand there is not a huge amount of damage to the planking that was left on.

"There are pockets of charred planking and some have gone, but it doesn't look as bad as first envisaged."

Police are analysing CCTV images which are thought to show people in the area shortly before the fire started at about 0500 BST.

Inspector Bruce Middlemiss from the Metropolitan police said detectives were looking into the possibility that the fire was deliberately started and would like to speak to some people seen in the area last night.

"There is indication that there were people in the area at the time when the fire initially started, that's come from the local borough CCTV," he said.

"There's no indication at this stage that the people that are on that CCTV footage are actually involved in the incident, but may merely be witnesses."

Speaking to BBC News, the chief executive of the Cutty Sark Trust, Richard Doughty, said he feared what would be lost in the blaze.

"When you lose original fabric, you lose the touch of the craftsman, you lose history itself," he said.

"And what is special about Cutty Sark is the timbers, the iron frames, that went to the South China Seas, and to think that that is threatened in any way is unbelievable, it's an unimaginable shock."

He said the ship would be "irreplaceable".

He added that the Cutty Sark was not just an important part of maritime heritage but an important part of British identity.

Mr Doughty described the ship as the epitome of speed under sail.

An eyewitness, who saw the fire as she was driving across the Thames, said: "I can see all this smoke billowing out from round by where the Cutty Sark is.

"It was black, thick black smoke... as I've come over the bridge there's all police cars blocking the road and everyone's being diverted."

Residents living near the ship were evacuated from their homes and taken to a Greenwich hotel, Scotland Yard confirmed.

The ship was undergoing £25m renovation works and was closed to visitors.

The conservation work was being carried out as sea salt had accelerated the corrosion of her iron framework.

So why should we be so worried about an old boat? Well, we're a heritage nation, so here are some reasons:

She is the most famous ship in the world
She is the epitome of the great age of sail
She is the only surviving extreme clipper, and the only tea clipper still in existence.
Most of her hull fabric survives from her original construction and she is the best example of a merchant composite construction vessel.
She was preserved in Greenwich partly as a memorial to the men of the merchant navy, particularly those who lost their lives in the world wars.
She is one of the great sights of London.