Dang It! Cutty Sark burns. . .

Rumor has it, it will survive the fire. Many of the planks only have surface damage, and much of the ship was removed and being restored offsite.

Don't lose hope yet!

Nate

 

It was a bad-tasting Scotch anyway...

 

Built at a time when good engineering included aesthetics as well as function, Cutty was (and is) one of the best "lookers" ever fashioned.

Today's tankers and container ships have as much aesthetic appeal as a cardboard box (which they are very deliberately built to mimic as much as possible for storage efficiencies) - so too the cruise liners which look less like ships and more like fallen high-rise condos, stripped of anything that might please the eye so as to cram in one more deck of soulless, characterless cubicles called "staterooms" to add to the profit.

Cutty'll get restored. And perhaps someday a wiser generation will rise to aesthetic principle and fund her enough to put her back at sea under sail, which is where she should be, and should always have been.

Mark Baird
Alameda CA

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ May 21 2007, 03:45 PM) [snapback]446914[/snapback]</div>

Maybe it could be reconfigured to import hybrids or electrics or even better, export GM's electric car to China.

 

Alas, my heart is breaking with the sound of the timbers crackling as they cool...

Hopefully, she's been put out by now. As a sailor, this one cuts especially close to the heart. To see such a masterpiece of engineering go up like that...

There's even suspicion of foul play here. I'd certainly hope not, but if it is, I'd like to know what would possess anyone to act in such a callous fashion towards a true lady of the sea.

 

For some pictures of the Cutty Sark and the surrounding area in Greenwich, here are links to some picture albums from December 2005:

From the water

From the land side

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Wildkow @ May 22 2007, 07:07 AM) [snapback]447223[/snapback]</div>

Although in general I'm not in favor of capital punishment, I wouldn't mind seeing these morons hung from the yardarm!

 

Hung from the yardarm is too kind. They need to be keel-hauled...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Wildkow @ May 22 2007, 07:07 AM) [snapback]447223[/snapback]</div>

Haven't seen news that it was confirmed, even on the Yahoo! UK site. Did you mean (if) foul play confirmed?

In any case, here is a picture from my last trip to Greenwich of Barb resting on deck after a very long day of sightseeing.

- Tom

[attachmentid=8250]

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ichabod @ May 22 2007, 10:56 AM) [snapback]447308[/snapback]</div>

...and then forced to walk the plank!

Actually, no. They need to be shackled and forced to help restore the Cutty Sark.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(JimN @ May 21 2007, 06:09 PM) [snapback]447058[/snapback]</div>

My electric car was imported from China. 50% of Americans will be driving Chinese EVs before the first GM EV of the 21st century rolls off the assembly line.

I saw the Cutty Sark when I was in London. Beautiful ship. Later, I sailed for a week as a member of the crew of the Lord Nelson, a tall, three-masted square-rigger very roughly the same size as the Cutty Sark, although, to my disappointment, the Lord Nelson had engines as well, needed in a sailing ship that has to meet deadlines. We had a couple of days of pure sail, and that was fabulous, although I have never been so sick in my entire life.

Our accommodations on the Lord Nelson were a great deal better than the original sailors on board the Cutty Sark had to endure.

If you don't get too seasick and you want the adventure vacation of a lifetime, check out the Jubilee Sailing Trust. I'd give half my inheritance to be totally cured of seasickness so that I could go sailing again on a regular basis.

 

I built a detailed model of the Cutty Sark as a child, with help from my dad. It was a Revell kit.

The ship was a priceless example of high technology (and very green!) from a bygone era.

Harry

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ May 22 2007, 10:22 PM) [snapback]447774[/snapback]</div>

I'm very fortunate- I've never had a problem with seasickness (and I've been at sea in extreme conditions), as I love sailing. But while I don't believe that there is a cure for seasickness, there are a lot of treatments available. Many people I sail with say that those wristbands really do work. Scopolamine patches work for a lot of people, but they do have side effects; most commonly dry mouth, but some people experience hallucinations (that might be a reason to try them ). Ginger seems to work for many people; I always keep ginger snaps and ginger ale on my boat. I hope you can find something that works for you!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(larkinmj @ May 22 2007, 07:39 PM) [snapback]447785[/snapback]</div>

I've tried everything: Meclazine, Scopolamine, ginger, two types of wrist bands (electrical stimulation and the kind with the little knob). I've tried watching the horizon, I've tried eating and I've tried not eating.

Ginger has no effect (though ginger ale and ginger snaps taste good) and the wrist bands of both types have no effect on me. Watching the horizon helps, but after a while I still get desperately sick. Meclazine helps a little, and scopolamine helps quite a bit more, and I use one or the other any time I am going to be in motion-sickness situations, but I still get sick, and in extreme situations I get so sick I want to die. Original Dramamine does nothing for me at all. Dramamine II has Meclazine as its active ingredient, which helps, but I prefer to take it as Bonine, which can be dissolved on the tongue or chewed, and does not need to be swallowed whole.

Some people get over their seasickness after a few days. Others never do. Lord Nelson (for whom the above-mentioned ship was named) got seasick every time he went to sea, and Charles Darwin was seasick for the entire voyage of the Beagle.

I've never met anyone for whom Meclazine or Dramamine was a complete cure. Scopolamine is a complete cure for some people, but not for all.

You are extremely fortunate. I highly recommend a voyage on the Lord Nelson. Check out the link above for the Jubilee Sailing Trust.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ May 23 2007, 07:58 AM) [snapback]448167[/snapback]</div>

For a few months after major ear surgery I would get dizzy for several minutes at a time, pretty violently dizzy (so dizzy I literally couldn't stay seated in a chair without grabbing something for support else I'd tumble out of the chair. I'm glad those recuperative days are long past). Anyway, my doctor taught me a technique that was amazingly effective at stopping most dizziness: simply hold up my index finger a few inches away from my face and stare at it hard. It forces the eyes to focus on something dead stable at close range and while I don't understand whatever the brain does to reconcile what it sees with what the ear is telling it while doing that, it has worked amazingly well.

While dizziness and motion sickness are not the same phenomenon, they share similar causation, so I'll pass this trick onto you to try out next time you're subjected to motion sickness - who knows, maybe it'll help, if some or all of what causes your sickness is visually triggered.

Mark Baird
Alameda CA

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ May 23 2007, 10:58 AM) [snapback]448167[/snapback]</div>

My sailboat (a Sea Sprite built in 1967, pictured in my avatar) is named "Beagle"- both in tribute to Darwin and evolutionary theory, and one of my dogs.