Greenwich Tea Party

Britain's most famous sailing ship burned down

The restoration of one of the most popular monuments of Britain's colonial past, the fast tea clipper Cutty Sark, will apparently develop into a complete recreation of this unique example of 19th-century shipbuilding. Yesterday, the sailing ship, which had been standing for many years in a special dry dock near the Thames embankment of the former London suburb of Greenwich and was temporarily closed to visitors during major repairs, burned almost to the ground. According to the city fire service, more than 80% of the ship was damaged in the fire that broke out at 4.45 am. Most of the ship's hull, despite the fact that eight fire brigades who arrived at the scene of the fire managed to put out the flames by 6.20, was significantly damaged by the fire. The head of the regulatory organization involved in the operation and restoration of the Cutty Sark Museum, Richard Doty, fears that the most important thing, namely “the original material and the touch of the master,” is irretrievably lost. “What made the 138-year-old Cutty Sark special,” the BBC quoted Mr. Doty as saying, “was its wooden beams and iron frame, which had been in the seas of India and southern China.”

The clipper "Cutty Sark" with a displacement of 963 tons was first launched in 1869 in Dumbarton and, according to the plans of its first owner, John Willis, nicknamed the White Cylinder, was to become a high-speed transporter of tea from India and China to London. However, it never brought success to its owner in trade regattas. And due to the opening of the Suez Canal, the Cutty Sark was completely unclaimed, giving way to less fast, but more reliable and capacious ships.

The Cutty Sark gained its fame as a high-speed sailing ship on the Australia-Great Britain route, transporting wool. But this time the financial hopes of its owner did not materialize, and the clipper was sold to the Portuguese. The ship returned to its homeland in 1922 on the initiative of the British enthusiast Captain Wilfrid Dowman. The Cutty Sark became a training vessel and was bequeathed to the London Naval School in 1938. Another 14 years later, avid lovers of sailing ships managed to put the clipper on an eternal mooring in Greenwich, and since 1957, the Cutty Sark, inaugurated as a museum by Queen Elizabeth II, has welcomed 15 million tourists on board. The spartan furnishings of the cabins were restored by restorers, and the authentic smell of tea, as museum workers assured, had not disappeared from the hold since the 1870s.

However, almost half of the museum on board the tea clipper was not damaged in the fire, and part of the furnishings survived due to the fact that exhibits that recreated the image of the cabins of the last sailing ship in Britain, and even part of the ship’s hull, were taken out for restoration. Drawings and details of the description of the pristine Cutty Sark have also been preserved, so museum workers hope to return the tourist flavor of old London to Londoners and guests of the capital. However, visitors will not be able to set foot on the deck of the “last tea clipper” as soon as previously planned.

In 2004, the Cutty Sark Museum Foundation was successful in securing the first part of a grant for an extensive restoration project, and the ship museum has been closed to tourists since 2006. It was assumed that by 2009, the corroded skeleton of the ship would be repaired, the false deck would be completely replaced, and visitors would be able to go down into the boathouse to be able to inspect its hold and bottom. In total, the managers of the “floating museum” estimated the restoration work at almost $50 million and did their best to attract those who wanted to participate in the fate of the object of national pride. However, before they had time to collect all the funds for the restoration of the sailing ship-museum, they had to appeal to patrons for donations for its complete restoration. A corresponding memorandum has already appeared on the official website of the Cutty Sark Museum, which states that after yesterday’s fire, “the ship needs the support of its friends from all over the world more than ever.”

Yulia KHOMCHENKO