Cutty Sark conservation under way

Work on conserving material from the fire-damaged Cutty Sark is under way in Kent, so the whole ship can eventually return to its dry dock in London.
Specialists working on the tea clipper have said their aim is conservation rather than restoration, because much of the original material remains. Half of the timbers had been removed for treatment before fire hit in May.
Technical manager Ian Bell said the aim was to conserve materials so they could withstand the weather for decades.
He said old planks were being reconstructed with "resins and with other consolidation materials, so they will be able to survive the weather over the next 50 years".
It is hoped the work will be completed before 2012, so the 138-year-old vessel can return to its dry dock in Greenwich, south east London, before the start of the Olympics.


Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7001013.stm or visit the official site at http://www.cuttysark.org.uk/

Some Cutty Sark facts ...

* The Cutty Sark is the most famous tea clipper built and the only one to survive.

* Most of her hull fabric had survived from the original construction.

* The ship was launched at Dumbarton on the River Clyde, Scotland, in 1869. The name comes from Robert Burns' poem, Tam O'Shanter; Tam meets a group of witches, most of whom are ugly, but for Nannie, who is young and beautiful and is described as wearing only a "cutty sark", or a short chemise or shirt.

* The ship's figurehead is a representation of this witch.

* Her maiden voyage was in February 1870. The Cutty Sark left London bound for Shanghai, via the Cape of Good Hope. Commanded by Captain George Moodie, she carried "large amounts of wine, spirits and beer. Her last cargo of tea was carried in 1877.

* From 1885 to 1895, she was used in the wool trade with Australia, bringing the new season's clip from Sydney to London, setting new speed records year after year.

* By 1895, she was losing money and was sold to the Portuguese as the "Ferreira", although her crews called her "Pequina Camisola" ('little shirt'). She was worked by her new owners between Oporto, Rio, and Lisbon until 1920, when she was sold again, this time becoming the "Maria do Amparo".

* In 1922 she underwent a refit in the Surrey Docks, London, and was driven to shelter from a storm in Falmouth harbour on her way home. A Captain Wilfred Dowman saw her there, and bought her from the Portuguese owners, returning her to British ownership again.

* After World War Two she again became surplus and was eventually towed to Greenwich and placed in a specially constructed dry dock in 1954.

* After much restoration work she was opened to the public in 1957. Since then more than 13 million people have visited her.





I've heard nothing about the lowlife(s) who started this fire being brought to justice but at least things are going in the right direction.

Minister snubs Spitfire heroes

DEFENCE Secretary Des Browne was under fire from RAF top guns last night — after missing a tribute to our Battle of Britain heroes.
He sparked outrage by snubbing a memorial service to the 1,441 fliers killed or injured in the nation’s finest hour in 1940.Furious war veterans claimed it was an insult to the brave pilots who defeated the Luftwaffe 67 years ago.
Mr Browne made a grovelling apology, and vowed a minister will be at ALL future services. Hundreds of Armed Forces personnel past and present packed Westminster Abbey for Sunday’s annual service.RAF, Army and Royal Navy top brass were there, along with a representative of the Prince of Wales.Four RAF Tornado fighter jets staged a fly-past at 1,000ft as a mark of respect.

Tony Hirons, of the Royal Air Force Association, said: “I cannot remember a service in recent years where a Government representative hasn’t been present. It’s an astonishing snub.”
Mr Howarth said: “I’m appalled. The service is one of the most important events in the military calendar. Des Browne’s absence was a very serious reflection on the priorities of Gordon Brown’s Government.”
Sir Winston Churchill hailed the Battle of Britain as our “finest hour”. The Spitfire and Hurricane pilots in RAF Fighter Command defeated Hitler’s airborne hordes on September 15, 1940, despite being outnumbered 4-1.
Of the 2,353 young RAF men and 574 overseas pilots, 1,441 were killed or wounded. Wartime leader Churchill said of it: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”


Full story at http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007430304,00.html

Embrace EU treaty, Jose Barroso tells Britain

All I can say to this is f##k eu !!

Britain has been urged by the most powerful official in Brussels to embrace the controversial EU reform treaty as "an opportunity, not a threat".
In a speech to the Liberal Democrat conference, Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, sought to stem mounting opposition from British voters to the treaty by insisting that it was "not the (EU) constitution" reborn.

Mr Barroso appearance at the conference comes just days after Sir Menzies Campbell sought to silence Eurosceptic opinion once and for all by calling for a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU.And in conference question and answer session, the fervently pro-European leader appeared to dismiss anti-Brussels campaigners as misguided nostalgics.They were "dreaming of an England that never was and a Britain that can never be", said Sir Menzies.Those opposed to the EU, he declared, failed to understand the inter-dependence of the world today.
However, although he is now calling for a referendum on whether Britain should stay in or out of the EU, he is refusing to countenance a national vote just on the EU treaty.
David Laws, the party's children and schools spokesman, has dismissed campaigners for a vote on the treaty as a "lunatic fringe".

Full story at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/18/nlibdem618.xml