The Wardman Wire

These are the latest News Reports about the investigation being done at the Cutty Sark in Greenwich. The key points:

• It is not yet clear how the fire started.
• The extra cost of the restoration is likely to be £5-10 million.
• An appeal has already been launched.

Online Coverage

Daily Mail: Inside the burnt-out hull of the Cutty Sark .

Excellent photograph of bow that I can’t reproduce.

“The fire that reduced the Cutty Sark to a blackened skeleton left restoration teams, historians and generations of tourists.

Wanton vandalism or tragic accident, the explosion and two-hour blaze raised serious doubts over the future of one of Britain’s national treasures.”

Guardian: After the fire, heritage chiefs dare to hope that a treasure can be rebuilt.

Slightly over-egging the pudding. It is a clipper built out of teak by the Victorians that was on fire for less than 2 hours. Off course it can be rebuilt - if the iron didn’t shatter or melt.

Guardian - Tristram Hunt: An icon of seafaring bombast, trade and cultural exchange

“A familiar landmark on the London marathon route and a curiously enduring tourist attraction for residents and visitors alike, the Cutty Sark is little short of a national icon. More so even than HMS Victory, it opens up a history and identity that speaks powerfully to modern Britain. The ship is an unspoken part of our historic fabric whose value has resurfaced as it smoulders.”

Guardian - In praise of … the Cutty Sark

“Not since retreating German troops torched a museum containing two of Caligula’s imperial barges, near Rome in 1944, has fire destroyed such an important vessel. The blaze that reduced the Cutty Sark to a blackened iron core yesterday was cruel in many ways: to the team restoring it, to the many people who grew up loving it, and to the ship itself, which always carried with it the air of a trapped and vulnerable creature, like a tiger in a zoo, caught in a stone dry dock by the Thames.”

BBC: Roundup of papers.

BBC: Duke to visit Cutty Sark remains. “The Duke” being The Duke of Edinburgh, not a poker player or Daisy Duke in short shorts.

“The Queen and Prince Philip were already due to open a new planetarium and education centre at the nearby Royal Observatory and National Maritime Museum on Tuesday.”

Independent - Police study CCTV film as arson inquiry into Cutty Sark blaze begins

“Police have begun a search through hours of CCTV footage to discover whether the fire that swept through the Cutty Sark yesterday morning was started deliberately.

The damage to one of the country’s most famous landmarks has been estimated at between £5m and £10m, but members of the Cutty Sark Trust were left pondering how much worse it could have been.”

Scotsman - Fire rips heart from star of the seas

“IN ROBERT Burns’ epic poem Tam O’ Shanter, Cutty Sark was the beautiful but vengeful witch in a saucy shift who pursued Tam but managed only to rip the tail off his hapless grey mare, Meg. Now, the legendary tea clipper named after her has been overtaken by disaster and badly damaged by a fire, which may have been started deliberately.”

Good article. Much discussion of original meaning of “cutty sark”.

Tags: cutty sark, cutty sark trust, independent, daily mail, bbc, british broadcasting corporation, guardian, cutty-sark-fire, greenwich, london, england, tea clipper

[tags]cutty sark, cutty sark trust, independent, daily mail, bbc, british broadcasting corporation, guardian, cutty-sark-fire, greenwich, london, england, tea clipper[/tags]