I was saddened to see the notice about the PRINZ WILLEM . I had a chance to see her before this in my last (honeymoon) travels .The CUTTY SARK as we all know also burned . I have yet to hear what the CUTTY SARK MUSEUM has decided . As you know she was wood over iron unlike the PRINZ WILLEM that was all wood . We seem to be loosing these great maritime treasures at a planned but slow pace ( so they can,t be linked ?). I know this sounds like a conspiracy theory ,but, what amount of insurance was at stake in each case ??? I have always felt that todays generation if not passionate about these ships ,see them as a drain . Most young people today would rather go to a theme park than "some old ship " . Sad but true !! That,s my view and ,it,s likely not shared …TANKERBUILDER
The Prins Willem fire is certainly a tragic loss. However (as mentioned in several posts in this forum) the restoration of the Cutty Sark is making good progress (the ship will hopefully reopened to the public in a few years) and whilst the fire damaged the structure of the ship, all of the spars, fittings, deckhouses and much of the planking were stored elsewhere and untouched.
Tankerbuilder, the Cutty Sark is rising from the ashes, so to speak, quite impressively. (We’ve discussed her in several recent Forum threads, most extensively in this one: /forums/1158233/ShowPost.aspx ). It seems the fire didn’t actually do much structural damage, because (a) as Epinniger pointed out, most of the non-metal components of the ship had already been removed for restoration, and (b) the London Fire Brigade was on the job, and put out the fire relatively quickly. In fact the tragedy may have worked in the ship’s favor, in that it attracted a good deal of public attention - and funding. A good insurance policy also helped. As I understand it, the grand old ship is tentatively scheduled to reopen to the public in the summer of 2010.
What I haven’t read anything about recently is the effort to find out just why the fire started. I have the impression that the authorities concluded it was set deliberately, but I haven’t seen any recent news about the efforts to catch the miscreant(s) in question. I have some interesting ideas about appropriate punishments.
I seem to recall that, a few years ago, the British Government was planning to get rid of HMS Victory. There was a huge public outcry; the result was that she was retained. Similarly, the U.S. Government has spent millions maintaining the USS Constitution. The USS Constellation has also been restored to her original configuration and many repairs have been made to her. In other words, there are many devotees to these ships, especially in Europe and the United States.
Bill Morrison
A quick google search turned up a number of articles about the cause-- a vacuum cleaner left running overnight. Here’s a link to one: