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It's fantastic that she can be saved and the she escaped complete loss, but what bothers me the most is why anyone would even set fire to it in the first place. It bothered me then and it still bothers me today. What sort of person would destroy something so historical and for what? Sickening. To put it mildly.

Thank you Dave for the update.

Looks like BIG problems with the 'restoration' of Cutty Sark! see here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7173900/Cutty-Sark-restoration-turning-into-a-fiasco.html

?

This is sad...

I have no idea what idiot came up with the idea to have the ship lifted, but he has clearly not the foggiest idea about engineering... Sounds like the idea of the usual marketing/PR idiots (apologies to the rare capable ones).

And it seems that the foto caption is in just as sorry a state... the "front" of the ship, it says, though to me it definitely looks like a section of the stern....

Yeah, I know.... I had this all out on another forum a couple years ago with a 'conservator' who was not convinced by any of my arguments to restore the ship to a floating, possibly even sailing condition.... Looks like I was right all along... I HATE being a 'Cassandra!'

I was lucky enough to go aboard Cutty Sark when my family visited London. What a beautiful ship and what a sad story. As a lover of old ships, I contributed to the campaign to restore her, I hope that everything is righted and she is restored to her former glory. Personally, I think she should be back afloat, like some of our famous historic ships, including Constitution, Constellation and the Charles W Morgan, all three older than the Cutty Sark. The thought of her somehow suspended on steel beams, as an iconic work of art sickens me. If that is the plan I wish that I had never contributed, let her instead die an honorable and dignified death. As was written about Old Ironsides before a restoration, "The harpies of the shore have plucked the Eagle of the Sea!"

John