Lisa Jardine: What's so bad about replicas? (Cutty Sark)
The Cutty Sark is to undergo yet more restoration work after being ravaged by fire. Parts of it will be too badly damaged to be saved, so at what point does it cease to be the original ship?
I have spoken more than once, in the course of these broadcasts, of my fascination as an historian with the survival of things from the past, and the way touching and handling objects, or fragments of material, can help us recall with particular vividness and intensity otherwise inaccessible moments in history.
So listeners will not be surprised to hear that the news to which I woke on Monday morning - that the 19 Century tea clipper, the Cutty Sark, was ablaze from end to end at Greenwich - filled me with absolute dismay. Currently undergoing a £25m restoration, the Cutty Sark is the kind of magnet draw for the general public which convinces them (to use the slogan cleverly coined last year) that "history matters".
One of London's best-loved landmarks since she was towed to her specially constructed dry dock in 1954, she is also a memorial to the merchant seamen who lost their lives at sea during two world wars. Since the Cutty Sark opened as a tourist attraction in 1957, millions of people have queued to tour her, or have participated in one of the many educational events on board.
I was almost persuaded that the fire had been a help rather than a hindrance to the restoration project.
By Tuesday morning, when the TV cameras were allowed closer, it was clear that the damage was extensive. The ship's three wooden decks and planking had been destroyed, and the intensity of the heat had in some places buckled the metal frame. Dramatic shots through the blackened hull showed that the proud clipper had been reduced to a charred skeleton.
Still, it could, we were reassured, have been much worse. Because of the restoration in progress, half of the ship's timbers had been taken away for treatment. The three 100-foot masts, their sails and rigging, had been removed at the beginning of the project and sent to Chatham's Historic Dockyard for storage.
The prow, anchor and ship's wheel, and the complete contents of the below-decks galley and workshops, were also safe, as was the distinctive figurehead. This (many listeners will recall) features a busty "witch" in a short petticoat allegedly called in Scots dialect a cutty sark.
And although everyone involved in the project is devastated, according to a statement from the Cutty Sark Trust's chief executive, still, here too was a golden opportunity, the possibility of restoring her to an even more stunning standard than had been envisaged before the tragedy.
I was almost persuaded that the fire had been a help rather than a hindrance to the restoration project. Part of our national heritage had come close to annihilation, but, fortunately (to quote the chief executive, surveying the damage on Tuesday morning), "we have enough of the original material here to make sure she will survive".
I find this an interesting thought. Whatever happens now - and surely the restoration efforts will be redoubled, and the desperately needed extra funding forthcoming - the resulting ship will now conclusively be a replica, simply not the original.
But then, wasn't she that already? The masts, everything on deck, many of the deck planks, and the fittings, were remade from scratch the last time the ship was rescued from destruction (by decay and neglect) in the 1950s. The masts, sails and rigging were once again restored, and pieces of the fabric replaced, as part of the celebrations for the Millennium....
Read entire article at BBC
I have spoken more than once, in the course of these broadcasts, of my fascination as an historian with the survival of things from the past, and the way touching and handling objects, or fragments of material, can help us recall with particular vividness and intensity otherwise inaccessible moments in history.
So listeners will not be surprised to hear that the news to which I woke on Monday morning - that the 19 Century tea clipper, the Cutty Sark, was ablaze from end to end at Greenwich - filled me with absolute dismay. Currently undergoing a £25m restoration, the Cutty Sark is the kind of magnet draw for the general public which convinces them (to use the slogan cleverly coined last year) that "history matters".
One of London's best-loved landmarks since she was towed to her specially constructed dry dock in 1954, she is also a memorial to the merchant seamen who lost their lives at sea during two world wars. Since the Cutty Sark opened as a tourist attraction in 1957, millions of people have queued to tour her, or have participated in one of the many educational events on board.
I was almost persuaded that the fire had been a help rather than a hindrance to the restoration project.
By Tuesday morning, when the TV cameras were allowed closer, it was clear that the damage was extensive. The ship's three wooden decks and planking had been destroyed, and the intensity of the heat had in some places buckled the metal frame. Dramatic shots through the blackened hull showed that the proud clipper had been reduced to a charred skeleton.
Still, it could, we were reassured, have been much worse. Because of the restoration in progress, half of the ship's timbers had been taken away for treatment. The three 100-foot masts, their sails and rigging, had been removed at the beginning of the project and sent to Chatham's Historic Dockyard for storage.
The prow, anchor and ship's wheel, and the complete contents of the below-decks galley and workshops, were also safe, as was the distinctive figurehead. This (many listeners will recall) features a busty "witch" in a short petticoat allegedly called in Scots dialect a cutty sark.
And although everyone involved in the project is devastated, according to a statement from the Cutty Sark Trust's chief executive, still, here too was a golden opportunity, the possibility of restoring her to an even more stunning standard than had been envisaged before the tragedy.
I was almost persuaded that the fire had been a help rather than a hindrance to the restoration project. Part of our national heritage had come close to annihilation, but, fortunately (to quote the chief executive, surveying the damage on Tuesday morning), "we have enough of the original material here to make sure she will survive".
I find this an interesting thought. Whatever happens now - and surely the restoration efforts will be redoubled, and the desperately needed extra funding forthcoming - the resulting ship will now conclusively be a replica, simply not the original.
But then, wasn't she that already? The masts, everything on deck, many of the deck planks, and the fittings, were remade from scratch the last time the ship was rescued from destruction (by decay and neglect) in the 1950s. The masts, sails and rigging were once again restored, and pieces of the fabric replaced, as part of the celebrations for the Millennium....