Further to my post this morning, I left a comment on the Cutty Sark news article to express my sadness about this.
Somehow they traced back to me at work - they contacted me!
They wanted to interview me on the BBC Radio Norfolk about this. Obviously I couldn’t do it because I am deaf, so I wrote a short story about it which they then spoke it out on the radio at 5:10pm today. Perhaps you Norfolk people heard this?
I asked them for a copy of the transcript of what they spoke on the radio and here’s what they said… I think this was a good radio article.
An investigation has begun into the cause of a fire that badly damaged the Cutty Sark, one of Britain’s best-preserved maritime treasures and most popular tourist attractions. The nineteenth century sailing ship caught fire around dawn in Greenwich. A spokesman for the London Fire Brigade, Steve James, told a news conference that they arrived at the site five minutes after the alarm was raised.
The Operations Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police in Greenwich, Martin Mitchell, believes the fire could have been arson.
But Chris Levitt — from the Cutty Sark Trust — says there have been no previous indications that anyone had malicious intent towards the Cutty Sark. For maritime experts she was unique among the world’s preserved ships. Dr John Graves is from the National Maritime Museum.
The original budget for the conservation project was twenty-five million pounds. The Cutty Sark trust say they already had a funding gap for that work. Now they’re appealing to the nation for money. They say the ”old girl” - as they put it - needs more help than ever before.
Well, in the county we have many sea faring links and Tony Sutton from Norwich is no exception. George Moodie the Captain of the Cutty Sark was Tony’s great great great great grandad. The ship was most famous as a tea clipper it also carried wine, beer & spirits on board.
They would export these to Shanghai, China and then on the return journey, would carried about 1,500 tons of tea. They would set off in June and not get back to England until October.
Captain George was well know for the “races”, where the clippers would race each other home. The Cutty Sark was no different from any of the other boats and running repairs had to be carried out at sea, but never lost a cargo and always made it on time!
In the end, George Moodie retired due to stress from captaining the ship.
