Under renovation: the total donated to the Cutty Sark by the Heritage Lottery Fund is £20.75million
Posted on 01/26/2008 8:01:47 AM PST by Stoat
The Cutty Sark has been granted £10 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund so restoration works can continue following a fire last year.
The money brings the total donated to the historic vessel by the fund over the past two years to £20.75 million.
Trustees decided to step in to help the restoration project again after the fire left the ship's hull an empty hulk. Police are still investigating the blaze.
Fund director Carole Souter said that giving two grants to the same project was unusual.
But she added: "The Cutty Sark is an amazing testament to our maritime heritage and one that we felt passionately must be protected for another century's worth of enjoyment.
"This was an extremely difficult decision for the HLF to take due to huge pressures on our budget. However, in this instance we made an exceptional decision to award additional funds to the Cutty Sark Trust so they can go ahead and realise their vision for this magnificent ship."
The trust wants to suspend the ship three feet above the ground so visitors can walk beneath the hull.
Restoration work was already taking place when the vessel caught fire in a dry dock in Greenwich last May. Much of the vessel's rigging, masts, coach and deck escaped the fire as they were in storage in Chatham, in Kent.
But the blaze added an extra £9million to the cost of restoration. Despite raising £1.2 million in public donations, the Trust was left £14 million short.
Richard Doughty, chief executive of the Cutty Sark Trust, said: "Once again, we must all be grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund for the unflagging support they've shown to the Cutty Sark.
"We asked them to save the ship from corrosion - now we've had to ask them to save her from fire."
The 900-tonne vessel was built in 1869 by Scott & Linton in Dumbarton to transport tea from China to Britain. In 1815, she achieved the fastest wind-powered voyage from Australia to England via Cape Horn - 72 days.
In 1922, after the Cutty Sark had finished as a working ship, Captain Dowman of Falmouth believed she should be preserved and made part of his nautical school.
His widow donated the ship to the Thames Nautical Training School at Greenhithe in 1938 and the vessel was later put in dry dock.
Structural problems identified in the Nineties led to grants of £25million being awarded and the ship was closed to the public in November 2006 for restoration.
The HLF has also granted £21million for the restoration of the Mary Rose.
Breaking News London's Cutty Sark On Fire
Beautiful.
"But Mum, I don't understand why you and all the other kids can walk underneath the ship".
Thank you so much for taking the time to add your excellent and essential information; it's sincerely appreciated.
What you say is quite heartening, as I had feared the worst. I think that the Cutty Sark touches the heart of anyone but the most callous who see her, regardless of their knowledge of ships, as not only an historical artifact but a living testimony to the genius and passion of civilized Man. I was so moved when I toured her in the 1990's that I purchased a set of rigging plans from the gift shop which adorn my walls today. I and I'm sure all others here are delighted to learn that the damage is apparently not so severe as originally thought, and there appears to be considerable eagerness and wherewithal to make things right with her once again. Hopefully she will be preserved in as near her original splendor as is technologically possible for the next ten thousand years, such is her significance to humanity.
Thanks again for your post :-)
Years ago I had a mystery ailment that was literlly killing me. For 4 months I sat weakly in my chair and built a cutty sark model from wood, fabric, wire, brass fittings and string. I had to carve the hull from a block of wood. The directions were excellent.
4 months about 8 hours a day on the best of those dark days.
At night I sometimes watched old movies all night.
Today the cutty sark rests over our fireplace. It is dear and close to my heart and once I’m gone it’ll be passed onto my son. Of course I’ve recovered with no lingering effects and it’s the one bright spot from those 4 months. Worth tying every knot too but NEVER AGAIN!
I saw the plans for the museum in the power point presentation. The plan is to make it a self-sustaining enterprise. It will sit over a glass frame which will keep the keel ten feet above a hall which will be able to be rented out for presentations, private functions, and even concerts. There was lots of corrosion and iron leeching from her iron frame. Fortunately, the iron had such a low carbon content that it although it bent in places, the frame did not warp or twist from the fire. It will also be able to be heated and hammered back into shape.
4 months about 8 hours a day on the best of those dark days.
At night I sometimes watched old movies all night.
Today the cutty sark rests over our fireplace. It is dear and close to my heart and once I’m gone it’ll be passed onto my son. Of course I’ve recovered with no lingering effects and it’s the one bright spot from those 4 months. Worth tying every knot too but NEVER AGAIN!
Your story is quite touching and meaningful, thank you so much for posting!
Of course I'm delighted that you've gotten better, no doubt thanks in large measure to the immutable powers of this grand Lady of the oceans whom you have honored in your painstaking and devoted labors.
And just as the witch Nannie (the figurehead) was unable to catch Tam O' Shanter, so also you have escaped the clutches of this illness and hopefully always will.
So fitting it is then that this grand ship will be passed down the generations of your family, reminding and inspiring in all with the fond memory of your race with the witch and of your triumphant victory.
Thank you again for your uplifting story of courage and perseverance. :-)
More good news, thank you so much!
What a wonderful and inspiring venue for most any sort of special event. Hopefully she will be first on the list for all who wish to plan a truly outstanding evening..
Thanks for that! Funny, several generations American but my last name is Scotch-Irish...so passing the cutty sark down generations, along with the family crest/coat-of-arms will be special!
Good news.
Though I dislike using the lottery to pay for things ...At least it is a voluntary tax.
You're quite welcome; my pleasure :-)
Funny, several generations American but my last name is Scotch-Irish...so passing the cutty sark down generations, along with the family crest/coat-of-arms will be special!
Indeed it will. Here's a particularly stirring version of Scotland The Brave which you and others here may enjoy :-)
Video clip claiming to be authentic footage of the Cutty Sark under sail, filmed on board! Plays for a bit over four minutes.
I admit I don’t know how the lottery works in the UK. Here in Virginia it amounts to a tax on the poor, albeit voluntary. The “government of the people, by the people, for the people” shouldn’t prey on the false hopes of its poorest citizens.
I just hope that after all the lottery ticket buyers get a chance to inspect her shipwright's handiwork on the hard, they also get to witness a living legend, on a beam reach in a fresh breeze, able mates coaxing her out of far too long a slumber, her spirit awakening a renaissance in mariners young and old.....
Thanks for the wonderful news, my FRiend
Outstanding.
You're quite welcome and I'm delighted that you've enjoyed this thread. :-)
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