CUTTY SARK restoration.

     For those of you who admire the British tea clipper CUTTY SARK, there is good news from the magazine WOODEN BOAT in the August 2009 issue, #209.

     When fire swept through the vessel on May 21, 2007, it looked like she was a hopeless ruin. She had been dry-docked at Greenwich, England since 1954 as the sole surviving tea clipper. After the blaze had been extinguished, conservation teams discovered that the historic ship was not so badly damaged after all. Only 2 percent of the vessel was destroyed. She had been six months into a major overhaul, having her masts, yards, coach house, rigging and fittings moved down the Thames to the Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham. The fire gave a desire to launch into the most ambitious maritime conservation in the world.

     The conservation team discovered that the real damage was not the fire to her hull, but by the corrosive electrolytic action on metals, a process that started the day she was launched at Dumbarton on the River Clyde in 1869. The CUTTY SARK has a composite hull of wrought-iron frames with Malabar teak planking above the waterline and American rock elm below the waterline. These planks were bolted on with Muntz metal, a type of brass of three parts copper and and two parts zinc. The hull was sheathed in Muntz metal plating to prevent fouling and the ravages of the teredo worm. During the 1950s to the 1970s the ship's keepers added salt to the deck to prevent slipping during the English winters. The resulting watery brine seeped into the bilge where it caused electrolysis between the iron frames and the Muntz metal fastenings. Ironically, this brine pickled the rock elm planking, adding to its preservation. The wrought-iron frames however, were almost eaten away and had to be replaced.

       To replace the iron frames, each of the ships 542 planks were disasembled, bar coded and set aside so as to gain access to the iron frames. The surviving frames were then sand blasted to remove the corrosion and painted with a thick epoxy paint used to coat North Sea oil rigs.

       While hull work goes on, CUTTY SARK will be given a new teak deck to replace the teak and plywood sandwich that will match her original specifications. The "new" teak is from a demolished Victorian era hospital from the East Indian port city of Mumbi (formerly Bombay) that has been shipped to Britain and milled to required dimensions.

        The hull will be repainted in traditional black, while the interior surfaces will be left bare so that moisture can evaporate. The interior was probably coated with linseed oil. The original iron-plated stern counter will be returned after treated by electrolysis and painted with epoxy paint.

        Upon completion of the hull, the whole ship will be suspended in a steel framework in drydock so as to keep the ship's weight off of her keel. The ship will appear to be floating in air, so that visitors can walk under the vessel to inspect her lines. Completion of the $50 million restoration project will be in the summer of 2010, when the public will be able to visit the 140 year old wonder.

               Montani semper liberi   Happy modeling to all and every one of you.

                                           Crackers