The Cutty Sark's figurehead.
Posted on 05/20/2007 10:04:21 PM PDT by FreedomCalls
The preserved 19th-century ship the Cutty Sark is on fire, London Fire Brigade has confirmed. It is said to be 100% alight and eight fire engines are at the scene in Greenwich, south-east London.
Greenwich town centre is closed to traffic and the Docklands Light Railway will also close because of a police cordon, Scotland Yard said.
Local residents were also expected to be evacuated shortly.
The ship, one of the capital's best-loved tourist attractions, is currently closed to the public for extensive renovation work. It was due to reopen in 2009.
There are fears that gas cylinders that may be on board the ship because of the renovation work may explode.
London Fire Brigade said the Metropolitan Police received a call at 04:55am reporting an extensive fire on the 19th-century clipper.
The Clyde-built Cutty Sark was, in 1869, one of the last sailing clippers to be built.
She was destined for the tea trade, then an intensely competitive race across the globe from China to London, with immense profits to the ship to arrive with the first tea of the year.
um, alight. Meaning on fire.
The Cutty Sark's figurehead.
Fire
Camera phone picture of the Cutty Sark ablaze. On 21st May, 2007, the Cutty Sark caught fire and was reported by the BBC to be completely ablaze. The extent of any damage is not known but there is concern that it may have affected the framework of the ship. The fire was reported to the fire service at 04:46 AM by members of the public. A representative of the fire brigade said at 7:09 AM that the fire was well under control and that damage was extensive but until the experts can make a full damage assessment survey, it is unknown just how much has been lost. The fire was declared by a journalist on site to have been out at 07:21, with most of the wooden structure in the centre having been lost.
In an interview with the the chief executive of the Cutty Sark Trust it was revealed that at least half of the "fabric" (Timbers etc) of the ship is not on the site due to it being dismantled for the preservation work and that they are most worried about the iron framework around which the fabric are attached.
Aerial video footage at 7:22 AM shows extensive damage but seems to indicate that whilst damage is extensive the ship as a whole has not been destroyed in its entirety. The bow section looks to be "relatively unscathed" and the stern also looks to have survived without major damage. The fire seems to have been concentrated on the centre of the ship, one journalist commented that "you can see right through from one side to the other" however no one currently on site knows just how much had already been removed for the preservation work
The latest reports confirm that 50% of the ship was not on the site. Of the remaining material on site (approx half of the ship) around 80% of that has at least been damaged.
Currently the cause of the fire is unknown but is being treated as suspicious by the authorities.
At 8.20am the British Firebrigade confirmed that a molatave cocktail was thrown into the ship at about 3.00am hightening the suspicions that this was the work of arson. The firebrigade did however stress that all possibilities were still being investigated.
I checked them on and off since I started this thread and we were ahead of them most of the night. They might have even pulled some of their stuff from us.
Photo of the fire from the AP. Their caption:
A general view of the 19th-century clipper The Cutty Sark on fire at the ship's dry dock, in Greenwich, East London, Monday May 21, 2007. A fire caused heavy damage to the clipper ship Cutty Sark on Monday, leaving one of London's proudest maritime relics a blackened hulk. The ship was the world's only surviving example of an extreme clipper, regarded as the ultimate development of a merchant sail vessel. Most of the original hull had survived since the ship was built for the 19th-century tea trade. Cutty Sark had been closed to visitors since last year for a 25 million pound (euro37 million; US$50 million) renovation. (AP Photo/PA)
Great picture of the figure head, and right on cue. I never knew that story.
The fire is out now and here is an overhead shot of what's left.
I was in London last Thanksgiving and hoped to get on-board for a look around. She was undergoing renovations so that wasn't possible.
I wonder if a workman got careless?
I was lucky to have toured her back in 2002. She was a very nice ship. Sad loss
Thank goodness the whole country is under surveillance. Surely the police have CCTV video of the perp throwing the Molotov cocktail and will catch him soon enough.
Thanks for the updates.
Crosby Stills Nash & Young - Wooden Ships Lyrics
If you smile at me, I will understand
‘Cause that is something everybody everywhere does
in the same language.
I can see by your coat, my friend,
you’re from the other side,
There’s just one thing I got to know,
Can you tell me please, who won?
Say, can I have some of your purple berries?
Yes, I’ve been eating them for six or seven weeks now,
haven’t got sick once.
Probably keep us both alive.
Wooden ships on the water, very free and easy,
Easy, you know the way it’s supposed to be,
Silver people on the shoreline, let us be,
Talkin’ ‘bout very free and easy...
Horror grips us as we watch you die,
All we can do is echo your anguished cries,
Stare as all human feelings die,
We are leaving - you don’t need us.
Go, take your sister then, by the hand,
lead her away from this foreign land,
Far away, where we might laugh again,
We are leaving - you don’t need us.
And it’s a fair wind, blowin’ warm,
Out of the south over my shoulder,
Guess I’ll set a course and go...
I was in Baltimore a few years back, and was passing by the Pride of Baltimore (III?) while she was fitting out. She was beamy and stable, but not at all like the previous vessels. Of course, she probably will not capsize and sink, either.
Nobody would be crazy enough to put that much sail on a vessel so narrow anymore. There are better ways to get someplace fast. She was just too unsafe for modern standards. But it is the massive sail area over the narrow hull that made the ship so beautiful and conveyed the purpose of all-out crazy speed.
If a modern vessel were built to replace the Cutty Sark, it would just break your heart to see it.
The latest reports confirm that 50% of the ship was not on the site. Of the remaining material on site (approx half of the ship) ...
Duh?
At 8.20am the British Firebrigade confirmed that a molatave cocktail was thrown into the ship ... hightening the suspicions that this was the work of arson.
Ya think?
It IS absolutely as historic as any warship. Commerce has had as much influence as war, and this vessel was the apogee of sailing ship technology when it came out, much as planes like the Grumman Bearcat and P-51 Mustang were the apex of piston engine aircraft when they were produced.
And a beautiful ship, too. If I understand correctly...it was priceless, the last of its kind.
What a shame.
Jewish lightning??????
Addition to your list ... Dornier Do 335 (Arrow). Just one remaining today.
Great analogy. This is an irreplaceable loss.
Prior to the 1870 completion of the transcontinental railroad, clippers were the only way to get goods from the West Coast to the East coast of the US in under 4 months. I think the record run was 90 days+ -.
One of my favorite maritime reads is Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast(E-book!), a great narrative of being clipper crewman sailing around the Horn to California and back in the pre-gold rush days.
How Talibanesque, destroying the symbols of the past.
The day of the opening of the ill fated milenium bridge.
It’s a real shame.
100% alight, not all right.
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