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Ali Sandeghi was woken just after 5am yesterday by something he took to be a
crack of thunder.
But what had seemed like the opening salvo of a storm was really the sound of
one of the great deck planks on the Cutty Sark splitting as fire tore
through the old ship.
Opening his curtains, Mr Sandeghi saw tall yellow-or-ange flames leaping
skywards from the centre of the vessel.
Firefighters were already on the scene in Greenwich, having reached it four
minutes after being called at 4.46am by the nightwatchman at the ship.
Initially there was little they could do to halt the spread of the flames that
burst from the centre of the Cutty Sark and raced along her old tarred
timbers.
Mr Sandeghi, 18, filmed the scene from his bedroom window with his mobile
phone, capturing explosions of flame from the heart of the ship and a thick
cloud of smoke.
Similar pictures from CCTV cameras had, a few minutes earlier, stunned
officers in the control room at Greenwich police station.
“There was real shock as we saw the first pictures; the ship was well ablaze,”
said Inspector Bruce Middlemiss. “Then lots of people were running to their
cars and rushing to the scene.”
An hour or so later Simon Beames, the architect for the ship’s restoration
scheme, was woken by his four-year-old son, who has developed a habit of
listening to his dad’s answer-phone messages.
“Daddy,” he said, “the Cutty Sark is on fire.”
By the time Mr Beames arrived at the dry dock by the Thames, a familiar
location to millions of tourists and London Marathon runners, the fire was
under control. But the investigation into what caused it was only just
beginning.
Early assessments by the ship’s trustees said the blaze would add at least £5
million to the cost of the continuing £25 million conservation project and
delay its reopening to the public beyond 2009.
But there are also fears that temperatures of 1,000C (1,832F) at the height of
the blaze may have caused irreparable damage to the famous tea clipper’s
unique iron hull.
Police said the incident was being treated as suspicious and that they were
following a number of lines of inquiry. A Fire Service investigation unit
examined the scene and police dogs were brought in to search for traces of
any accelerant.
The CCTV footage will be scoured for evidence of vandalism and police records
are being examined for any indication that someone may have had a vendetta
against the Cutty Sark Trust. But investigators are aware that the fire
could easily have been an accident; there were flammable materials inside
the protective hoarding erected around the ship.
As the smoke cleared the clipper was revealed to be in a sorry state. Above
deck were the skeletal remains of a canopy which had been erected to protect
the ship’s restorers from the weather. Its tarpaulin covering had burned
away and the heat of the fire had partly melted the glassfibre wall of a
marquee housing a temporary exhibition of ship’s artefacts.
The ship’s weather deck and tween deck were both damaged beyound repair and
the lower deck reduced to a pile of sodden black ash.
Urgent repair work began to bolster the giant wooden props that keep the ship
stable in its concrete dock.
But the greatest threat to the Cutty Sark’s future lay in the damage that was
most difficult to see. The most pressing concern of the ship’s curators is
that her iron hull, designed in 1869 by Hercules Linton to maximise her
sailing speed, had buckled in the fire.
An initial examination indicated that the frame had expanded during the fire
then contracted again. But what long-term impact that process has had will
not be known until structural engineers can analyse the hull this week.
“When you lose the original fabric, you lose the touch of the craftsmen, you
lose history itself,” Richard Doughty, chief executive of the Cutty Sark
Trust, said. “What is special aboutCutty Sark is the timber, the iron
frames, that went to the South China Sea. To think that is threatened is
unbelievable.”
Mr Beames, the ship’s architect, said preserving the hull was essential to the
future of the Cutty Sark.
“The frame is what we are most concerned about and we are looking for any
signs of distortion,” he said.
“The shape makes the Cutty Sarkwhat it was, the epitome of excellence in her
type of design – a very complex, curved form, just as significant as Frank
Gehry’s design for the Guggenheim [in Bilbao].” The restoration began six
months ago and most of the ship’s original artefacts had been removed for
safe keeping. The masts and rigging, master’s cabin, wheel, teak coachwork
and jolly boats are in the Historic Dockyard at Chatham, in Kent. “Nannie”,
the Cutty Sark’s witch figurehead, was in the temporary exhibition alongside
the ship and survived.
Before yesterday, the restoration fund already had a shortfall of £7 million
in public donations. The trust said the blaze would add at least £5 million
to the sum needed to restore her.
Marine archaelogists will meet next week in Edinburgh to draw up plans to
dismantle the only other surviving tea clipper, the City of Adelaide, built
in 1864 and left for the past 16 years to rot on a slipway beside the
Scottish Maritime Museum, in Irvine, Ayrshire, after attempts to raise £10
million for her restoration failed.
The museum is to carry out a recorded deconstruction of the ship and parts
salvaged and shared with other museums.
David Thomson, the museum’s director, said yesterday that it would be the most
“dignified” solution.
Tall tales of a tall ship
— More than 15 million visitors have boarded Cutty Sark since she
has been docked at Greenwich
— She achieved a record-breaking wind-powered voyage from Australia to England
– 67 days in 1885 via Cape Horn
— Cutty Sark’s most celebrated master, Captain Woodget
introduced a breed of collie dogs to New South Wales. He was also a good
amateur photographer, taking photos at sea – including an encounter with an
iceberg
— Cutty Sark is the first preserved ship open to the public since Golden
Hinde was exhibited in Deptford, southeast London, in 1580
— Cutty Sark was a modern vessel in her day. She had lavatories –
“the heads” – at a time when answering a call of nature was usually done by
squatting over the ship’s side
— The “Hell Ship” voyage in the early 1880s was triggered when seaman John
Francis was killed, the crew held a mutiny and Captain Wallace committed
suicide
— She carried 32,000sq ft (9,700sq m) of canvas sails, equivalent to the area
of 11 tennis courts
— When the weather was good all on board worked at least a 12-hour day, seven
days a week. In bad weather they would be on deck far longer
— Passing Cape Horn, the deck would be washed down by the breaking waves and
the ship would heel 40 degrees
— Cutty Sark was under Portuguese ownership from l895 to 1922 and
renamed first as Ferreira and then as Maria do Amparo
— On the bow of the ship is the motto: “Where there’s a Willis a way”, a play
on the name of the first owner, Jock “White Hat” Willis
— Scott & Linton, the first shipyard involved in making Cutty Sark,
went bankrupt as it struggled to cope with the vessel’s exacting
specifications. She was completed by Dennys
Source: Press Association
When I read it on the America's Cup Forum it's been like a punch in my stomach, it really made me feel sick.
I can only thank that I have plenty of photos shot in my two visits aboard; she's been my dream since I was a kid.
May the sea Gods give return her back to all of us.
Arrigo de Angeli
Lake Bracciano
Italy
Arrigo de Angeli, Bracciano (Rome), Italy
Doesn't this tragic event high-light the travesty of neglecting the "City of Adelaide", which was in far better condition than the "Cutty Sark" is now. Somebody should bring pressure to bear to do something about preserving that ship rather than giving up and having her destroyed.
Dav!d, Colchester,
Let the old girl die and rest in peace.
To try and restore her is wrong, it won't be a restoration, it will be a re-build, a copy.
Kevin Baker, Cramlington, UK
First I hope no permanent damage was done to the structure, if it was vandalism, I hope the culprit is caught and severely punished. Another observation, it's a pity that so many historic icons fall prey to money. Politicians find money for all kinds of white elephants, why can't government contribute even a fraction of the cost of Cutty Sark's restoration.
Cameron Gill, Charlestown, St. Kitts-Nevis
I love the Cutty Sark. It is my favorite ship in the world. I think it is one of the most beautiful objects ever made by the hand of man. I have sailed around the world and to visit the ship is a pilgramige of sorts for me and probably for many seafarers. The Taj Mahal of vessels. This is a tragedy. It should be named a UN world heritiage site.
Mark McGothigan, Oakland, CA USA
As an American Naval officer, treasure all things nautical and the loss of Cutty Sark is tragic.
She is a beautiful ship of the era. I recall walking along the wharf (pardon me jetty for the anglophiles) with my daughter one bright sunny Sunday in
1995. We had just finished visiting the Royal Greenwich Observatory; where each got to have our pictures made standing astride the Eastern and Western hemispheres – along the Greenwich meridian. We had gone to see the Harrison clocks.
Whilst wandering through the Hallowed Halls once trod by giants such as Astronomers Royal Edmond Halley & John Flamsteed, we chanced upon a room which held several ancient telescopes. Mollie called my attention to one in particular; after looking through it I said “You’re right Mollie, you can see Pluto”. The fellow behind us in line jumped on the scope as I cleared it, peered in, the n burst int laughter – Indeed he too had seen Pluto (some rake had pasted a picture of Disney’s dog on the lens)
Rok Kedney, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
The Cutty Sark is an international symbol and should be restored. I have been aborad her several times and hope to see her again.
Warren Brown, Oak Harbor, WA, USA
I wonder - is this record low of just two comments because people simply don't know what to say, or because hardly anyone cares? I'd like to hope it's the former, but with the values of today's society I'm not very confident
Tony Jones
Tony Jones, Grantham, Lincs
Cant believe this comes down to money - isnt this type of project is what the Lottery Commission is about ? or should we continue the current wasteful funding of protest groups.
The Cutty Sark is a proud moment of our history and is something that should be savioured beyond our generation
S Martin, London,
Education, education, arson.
jj, Cambridgeshire, UK
What a tragedy.
I trust the ship will be put back together again. I have visited it many times over the years from Australia & both my children have too .
ian, perth, australia
I was very sad to see the pictures last night on my ABC news here in Australia what has happened to the 'Cutty Sark'. I grew up with her, I was born up the road at St Al's in 1953, a year before she 'docked' I know but over the years had often visited her with school groups and my family who nare also from Greenwich.
I think all possible efforts should be made for the restoration. I now live north of Adelaide, so think its fitting if the 'City of Adelaide' can be used to restore her to her former glory.
Trisha Flak, Adelaide, Australia