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Originally Posted by London Times
Police are treating as suspicious a fire that engulfed the Cutty Sark, one of Britain’s best-preserved maritime treasures, early today.
Half of the 19th-century tea clipper's timber and the artefacts kept on board had been removed from the site as part of a £25 million conservation project, but the rest of the vessel has been substantially damaged.
Firefighters were called to the historic ship, preserved in dry dock in Greenwich, south-east London, at 4.45am. The fire began on the bottom deck and, at the peak of the blaze, the flames stood 6ft above the top deck, according to Cyril O’Brien, the borough fire commander who was in charge at the scene of the blaze.
Police believe the fire on board the ship, closed during its renovation, may have begun in suspicious circumstances. They are appealing for witnesses who saw people near the ship early this morning, and a silver car that was reported driving away from the scene.
The Queen and the Duke are due to visit Greenwich tomorrow. It is not known if they will extend their stay to see what has happened to the ship.
Inspector Bruce Middlemiss, from Greenwich Borough police, said: "We are treating the fire as suspicious as we would any fire of this scale and importance. There are indications from local borough CCTV that there were people in the area at the time that this fire started. There’s no indication at this stage that these people were involved, they may merely be witnesses."
A 200-metre cordon was placed around the ship on the banks of the Thames, and Scotland Yard confirmed that nobody was injured during the fire. The night watchman and staff on site are being interviewed at Plumstead police station.
Chris Livett, the chairman of Cutty Sark Enterprises, the fundraising arm of the Cutty Sark Trust, confirmed that some of the most important parts of the ship, including the masts, the jolly boat, half the planking and artefacts including the carved figurehead and paintings of the ship, were all safely in storage because of the renovation work.
"I know it’s salvageable," Mr Livett said. "This ship has been through many things. She’s over 100 years old. She’s been through recessions, storms, hurricanes. She’s been battling all her life. She’s not dead yet, far from it."
This morning workmen were carrying out urgent repairs on the shoring timbers which hold the ship upright in dry dock, and it was not yet safe to examine the extent of the damage on board. The biggest fears were not for the ship's wooden beams, which were so old and hard that they had survived with little more than surface charring, but for the wrought iron structure of the ship.
"We fear that some of the cast iron framework of the ship may have been warped. I can see significant buckling on some of the frames holding the deck up," Mr Livett said.
By 8.30am the blaze was out, but fire officers were still directing cooling sprays into the smoking ruins. Little could be seen of the ship itself except the white bowsprit still sticking out towards the river - the woodwork around it was a blackened mess.
The building erected around the ship while conservation work went on was gutted, with nothing left but a skeleton of blackened iron girders. Yards away, however, the white-tented entrance building, which resembles a hedgehog, remained untouched except for a light dusting of ash.
The stink of burning hung around the scene despite a breeze. Helicopters hovered overhead as police maintained the barriers sealing off Greenwich town centre.
Richard Doughty, the chief executive of the Cutty Sark Trust, said that the distinctive tang of timber and ropes familiar to all visitors to the vessel had been destroyed. "She was the Ferrari of her day because she was the epitome of speed under sail. When you lose the original fabric, you lose the touch of the craftsmen. You lose history itself."
Asked if the fire could have been started deliberately Mr Doughty said that he did not believe that it had been caused by the conservation work, which had stopped as usual on Friday afternoon, leaving the ship empty over the weekend.
"I find it hard to believe that anything we’ve done could have set the ship alight," he said. "There isn’t anything electrical at the heart of where the fire started, which was pretty much in the middle at the bottom. I can’t think of anything there apart from wood and metal."
A Transport for London spokeswoman said the northern section of Greenwich’s one-way system was closed. Cutty Sark station, closed earlier, has reopened and the Docklands Light Railway is running as normal. Greenwich Foot Tunnel, also shut earlier, has now reopened. A number of buses have been diverted.
The fire brigade was initially unable to tackle the fire fully after finding gas cylinders and chemicals used in the conservation work stored near the ship, and fearing that some might have been left on board over the weekend. Residents in nearby buildings were evacuated because of fears of an explosion.
Ian Allchin, a press officer with London Fire Brigade, told Times Online that the firefighters' efforts were hampered. "Initially, we were in defensive mode, with crews standing well back from the flames," he said. "We were able to confirm within about 45 minutes that there were no hazards on board, and began to fight the fire aggressively."
Buckingham Palace issued a statement on behalf of the Duke of Edinburgh, who is president of the Cutty Sark Trust: "The Duke was sorry to hear of the fire, this sad setback to an important example of our national maritime heritage.
"The Duke takes a close interest in historic ships and their preservation for future generations and as president of the Cutty Sark Trust since 2000 he has been working closely with them in support of their fundraising."
The 280ft ship has been closed since November 2006 and was due to reopen in 2009. It needed substantial repairs because sea salt had speeded up the corrosion of her iron framework.
The Cutty Sark is the last remaining tea-clipper, one of hundreds of ships that would sail to China carrying manufactured goods and return to the UK laden with tea from Shanghai.
First launched in 1869, the Cutty Sark was built for Jock Willis, known as 'White Hat Willis' for his trademark white top hat. He named the ship after the Scots phrase for a short petticoat, worn by a fleet-footed witch in Robert Burns' poem Tam O'Shanter.
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