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OMG - Cutty Sark on FIRE!

51 replies

JARM · 21/05/2007 06:52

Looks REALLY bad.

OP posts:
WendyWeber · 21/05/2007 09:10

It looks pretty bad in this pic but I suppose it's very old very hard wood so maybe the core of it would be OK, and there's a lot of metal too (although the restoration was for the iron)

Fat lady is figurehead!

piximon · 21/05/2007 09:32

Hopefully it looks much worse than it is. At least half of it was in storage. DH phoned to tell me what he could see on his way to work. He knows how much DS1 and I love her. So dissappointed that it took so long to raise funds to beging the project and now this happens.

Wolfgirl · 21/05/2007 09:34

THis is soooooooooooooo sad! really really sad! [sad} we grew up in North Kent (Bexleyheath) and it was a fave day out for us as kids. Spooky enough I visited my sister in Kent two weeks ago, and we took a ferry from Greenwich pier and of course saw the ship. Mighty wonderful vessel that she was! My mother will cry her heart out. just so sad!

suedonim · 21/05/2007 09:34

But even though I'm sad about the Cutty Sark, Sky News is treating this like a national disaster. Isn't there anything else going on in the UK today???

DumbledoresGirl · 21/05/2007 09:34

I am absolutely gutted. Dh and I went on the Cutty Sark last year. It was great and I have had it in mind to take the children to see it ever since. You can contribute to the restoration fund if you feel as strongly about it as I do. (www.cuttysark.org.uk) Only the destruction of the Victory would make me feel sicker.

WendyWeber · 21/05/2007 09:36

Nope, sue - top on BBC too and these are the other "top stories" there

Madeleine's father returns to UK
Planning shake-up for big schemes
Bafta double for Victoria Wood
Man charged over terror manual
Violence 'a problem for children'
£340m package for carer families
Stallone fined for hormone import

It's been a quiet day in Lake Woebegone...

edam · 21/05/2007 09:38

People from Cutty Sark charity on Today prog. said three decks had been pretty much destroyed but was hopeful with so much in storage it could be salvaged. Terribly sad.

suedonim · 21/05/2007 09:45

Thank goodness I'm not in Lake Woebegone, Wendy! Oh well, I'm off out in a few minutes to see what destruction and floods last night's storm has brought and maybe view a dead body or two.

WendyWeber · 21/05/2007 09:47

Oh really?

eek. Your news will be a bit different from ours then.

mm22bys · 21/05/2007 09:56

It is sad....I live just across the river from it and we pass it on our way over to Greenwich Park.

My mum (in Oz) actually told me all about it this morning, she's been over here a few times too so she was quite sad about it as well.

I really hope they can salvage it....

suedonim · 21/05/2007 09:56

Well, I'm not going out specifically to see such sights, it's just that I'm on a mission this morning and there's always something to see in Lagos.

twinsetandpearls · 21/05/2007 09:58

they said on r4 that it may not be as bad as it looks as much of the ship had been removed for restoration. Still awful though.

pinballwizard · 21/05/2007 10:09

pedant's rofl

reporter on Radio 5 just said it isn't as bad as feared because a lot of the burnt out material is from a canape which was covering the ship [grun]

blueshoes · 21/05/2007 10:22

phew. Live in Greenwich. Could smell lingering smoke when I left house this morning

rabbleraiser · 21/05/2007 10:25

It really is sad. I don't live in London, but it almost reduced me to tears seeing that beautiful clipper on fire.

I hope it wasn't deliberate

WednesdayAdams · 21/05/2007 10:27

Greenwich lass here!

I cannot believe it... being a cinic me... i hope the council does not decide to build new houses as it is a super premium location in Greenwich.

I cried when my hubby called me this morning on his way to work!

losty · 21/05/2007 11:36

Oh no

this is terrible

I am very and about it

DumbledoresGirl · 21/05/2007 12:07

I heard that although 50% of the ship was not in situ at the time, of the 50% left, 80% had been destroyed. So that is 40% of the overall vessel gone. They will restore it of course, but it will not be the same again. The whole point about the Cutty Sark was that it was the finest original tea clipper in existence, and now 40% of it won't be original anymore.

UnquietDad · 21/05/2007 22:50

One of those things I read years ago in a Boy's Book of Facts or something similar and has stuck - one of the crimes in the UK which still, in theory, holds the death penalty is "arson in a naval dockyard"...

WendyWeber · 21/05/2007 22:53

I don't think Greenwich qualifies though, does it?

Shame.

LongDistanceClara · 21/05/2007 22:56

This is so WRONG! I was so shocked seeing it on the news this morning.

lemonaid · 21/05/2007 23:39

According to QI, it doesn't any more.

Blu · 21/05/2007 23:49

The whole of that little bit of greenwhich is built around it. it's going to be disastrous fr businesses based on visitors.

All v sad.

MrsSnoek · 22/05/2007 22:22

Well, Greenwich Park, the views from the top of the park over South London, the Greenwich crafts market, the Queens House, Naval College and the Observatory are still very very interesting attractions for visitors!

I looove Greenwich!

ps. the best secret of Greenwich is lovely vegetarian cafe on Royal Hill called "ROYAL TEAS"

tigermoth · 23/05/2007 08:08

Ah Royal Teas - I know it from years back when we lived a few streets away - used to take my baby ds1 ther (so that's going back 13 years). His father took him to 'The Richard' pub a lot just down the road - ds1 has more earlymemories of the beer garden there than anywhere else in Greenwich