The Cutty Sark on fire

[Punkie]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6675381.stm
I've just got this on the breakfast news. They are saying the whole ship is in flames. The fire brigade are treating it as a suspicious fire.

[green-boat]

Not a good sign, all that old timber, tar and pitch. :( :(

[tim slocum]

This is a disaster! I feel sick.

[Punkie]

As luck would have it, 50% of the planking has been removed as part of a conservation project, plus all the masts and all the historic artifacts. I am just looking at the film of it now, from a helicopter, They say 80% of what is left is damaged. Just hopeing the iron frames are all right. Police are looking at cctv pictures of people and cars in the area before the fire started

[TugboatTom]

What a shame! Suspicious fire? It was probably a couple punk-:censored: teenagers that did that! Some people just have no respect! It sure couldnt have been electrical because for one thing the ship has no electricity. Thats pretty much the only other way it could catch on fire! Unless it got struck by lightnig. Yeah seriously, I hope that they are able to rebuild that thing!

[der kapitan]

On my last trip to England, which was on a theatre tour, we took a boat trip to Greenwich, to tour the museum, and I had the opportunity to visit a well-known hobby shop, Maritime Models, which is no longer there.

Cutty Sark was on display in a permanent drydock then, as I understand it still is, and I am saddened to hear of the fire.

[patmat2350]

She definitely has electrics aboard- lighting in the hull, etc. And who knows what kind of pile of oily rags might have been laying around. But if it was a miscreant, I'll gladly wait to see the ship rerigged, so he can swing from a yardarm!

Pat M

[Massey]

This is a sad day in maritime history. Thankfully the ship could still be restored to her former self. I agree with Pat about the miscreant swinging from a yard arm. I will even tie the knot!!

Massey

[Kmot]

Sad news.

[Punkie]

Its a mess,
Their web site says how people can help them raise funds to rebuild her.
http://www.cuttysark.org.uk/

[Ghost 2501]

if I were to say what I feel regarding the loss of such a historic ship, I'd get banned! all i want is for the people who did this to be caught and given the yol heave ho around the keel of hms warrior :) or maybe HUNG by a noose from HMS Victory!

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

I was thinking that the heavy timbers would char and then insulate the wood from burning,... But the ship really looks awful.

:(

[killick]

if I were to say what I feel regarding the loss of such a historic ship, I'd get banned! all i want is for the people who did this to be caught and given the yol heave ho around the keel of hms warrior :) or maybe HUNG by a noose from HMS Victory!

"Cannon-izing" on the gundeck of HMS Victory would be much more effective...and appropriate! Or send the blighter way back in time, draft him into the Royal Navy, and re-instritute The "Old" Articles of Wat......!

[Ghost 2501]

"Cannon-izing" on the gundeck of HMS Victory would be much more effective...and appropriate! Or send the blighter way back in time, draft him into the Royal Navy, and re-instritute The "Old" Articles of Wat......!

whats that, 1 ram gunpowder down the barrel, c ram down said chav arsonist, 3 light fuse 4 cover ears wait for bang 5 see how far chav got fired from said cannon?

[rlboats2003]

1. Each country should identify what landmarks are considered a national Treasure.
2. Each country should identify that defacing the national Treasure is considered a "crime aganist the state"
3. Each country should envoke laws that identify "that crimes aganist the state are considered capitial crimes and carry up to and including the death penality".

That is the legal side of things - now the penalty - all your methods of excuation are using a national treasure to eliminate the individual - why would you want to give any body of this caliber the chance to be excuated on the yardarm of HMS Victory.

I know this is a cruel idea but at least it would help raise money for the reconstruction: Picture 100 fuse going to one stick of dyminte and a 50/50 raffel were you pick a fuse number and split the 50% pot among all the number winners, will the other 50% goes to the ship. The cost of the ticket is 2pounds each. Now were does the dyminte go - well there are two areas were it can fit in the body. The guy or girl convicted of the crime is tied in a cage and can say or do any thing they want, until the grand moment when which fuse has arrived first is announced.

I bet you next week there will be less fires on national tresures unless it is a certian area of the world and people would love to go through this.

A little nasty but what to heck,
They destroyed something that can not be replaced in its original state.
You can all shoot me now for saying this but I know of covered bridges and whole historic towns being burned becaues of this lack of respect.

Sorry for the candor,
Rich

[Kmot]

http://www.cuttysark.org.uk/index.cfm

[pkboo]

It's a sad day how sick can people get! I just heard it on the news, man I have no words.

[smart_racer]

Reading this news...is very sad news

[ropanach]

I agree with Pat !!!!! TOO THE YARD ARM, I'll get the neck tie.


Roger

[pitviper51]

sad day indeed.. hope to see rebuild
mike

[Mrs. Toe's]

Nay to the use of fuses to explosives packed into body orifices...I says ye use the Royal Navy tradition of hangin' the scurvy dog frim the highest yardarm.

Before ye cry that it would be too easy on the blighter--consider this; in the Royal Navy, at sea, they would use a running bowline around the condemned's neck, and he would be standing 'before the mast'. With several mens hands to the bowline, they would slowly haul the dog into the rigging, and he would be 'dancing the hempen jig' all the way up.

That's my humble opinon on serving up justice. :mad:

[rlboats2003]

If I remember correctly isn't that the way the hung Billy Budd, it was an old movie and I cant remember - I know there was another movie were they keel hauled an individual. I am sorry that I think it was Damn the Defiante. Well you got the idea - destruction of antiquities will not be tolerated.

I think this was driven home when I was 12 years old and I expressed myself by putting a stick through half of the glass pains in my Grandfathers small starter green house. My father warmed my butt with the "I need the every hour wood paddle" that I couldn't sit down for a couple of hours, then I had to learn to clean, point and glaze glass pains in where I broke them. That was the last time I ever expressed myself in a destructive sort of way. When they died I bought my grandparents house and fixed it, up expanded it. I use to stand and look at the old greenhouse that by now was falling appart - when I took it down not a single pain of glass was broken.

I never understood what was gained by burning down an 1880 train station being restored, covered bridges, or historic sections of a town. That is why the burning of the Cutty Sark, if on purpose, makes no sense to me and intensely disgust me.

Sorry for Venting
Rich

[keith S]

Rich,

I beleive your setiments are echoed from within the group. It is a shame if this was intentional by an individual who thought this would give them a "higher" standard of vandalism in the criminal world. :mad: History can be rebuilt, but just is not the same as the original. Too often there are those who do not and can not understand the importance of preseving the past--especially when it is such a revered vessel, such as this, world wide! Too little respect in the world today as we are forced to concentrate on political correctness--not politeness/respect. :( :censored:
May they keel haul the bugger that did this through a cement pond. :censored: :D

[killick]

I believe this very contingency was provided for in the 1757 "Royal Navy Articles of War" http://www.hmsrichmond.org/rnarticles.htm
Note "Article 24".......!

[Kmot]

Still don't know if it was a careless accident, or malicious intent.

If it was intentionally set, it could have been one of the mentally deranged types we have so many of these days. Setting a historic vessel afire, or murdering students in the classroom. There are just a lot of sick people out there these days. :(

[Punkie]

One thing you guys are missing is that it is not a warship its a tea clipper, so military justice does not apply. Imprisonment with hard labour would be the applicable punishment from the time scale of this vessel and this particular crime. And probably more suited to English sensibilities. We abolished Capital punishment a long time ago. It will be rebuilt and to be honest it will be as much the authentic ship as any other old wooden ship, as wood is replaced through out their lives and as I said earlier a large proportion had been removed due to restoration work and will be able to be refitted.

[killick]

Warship or not, -- I don't think the people that burned this ship down (if indeed it was arson) -- are going to pay the millions of GBP's this damage will cost to repair. According to what I read, there is still some question as to whether or not the iron frames are intact.

But, a litle "slap on the wrist" for the miscreants and they (or "Copycats") will be happily trotting off to burn HMS Vistory or some other irreplaceable national monument --regardless of whether it flies Red Duster or the White Ensign.....

[Punkie]

The ship was in a bad state before the fire, the main deck leaked like a sieve and the iron frames where rotting away http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3573894.stm This might even be a chance to do an even better job of restoration than they where going to do anyway. Every cloud has a silver lining.