I haven't seen any of the TV coverage, but I've logged onto several websites that have pictures of the damage. There's nothing good to be said about this situation, but I'm not quite as pessimistic as Jayman. Apparently at least fifty percent of the ship's fabric had already been removed - including the main deck planking (though one overhead photo seems to show the forecastle deck - which appears to be more-or-less intact). In the photos I've seen, the iron frames and deck beams don't seem to be obviously distorted - but, as Jayman points out, their structural integrity may have been adversely affected even if they aren't visibly bent. (On the other hand, since the ship is permanently drydocked those members will never have to withstand all the stresses that similar components of an operating sailing vessel would.)
As I understand it, the current restoration project was expected to take about four years. The administrators, who are trying mightily to put a bold face on the situation, seem to think this tragedy won't add a great deal to that period. But I won't be surprised if the whole job does indeed take ten years. Such things tend to get more complicated, and time consuming, as they're investigated more thoroughly.
I've wondered about the insurance situation too. I have no idea how such things work, but as I understand it the ship is owned by a private trust, rather than the government. I do hope there is a good insurance policy - but it's not unknown for such institutions to operate without insurance. The ship's website is seeking donations. Maybe the vast publicity this tragedy is getting will cause ship lovers all over the world to open their pocketbooks. I certainly hope so.
I do wonder about the sprinkler system. I had the impression that she had a pretty sophisticated one. (I think I remember looking at the sprinkler heads the last time I visited her - which admittedly was about ten years ago, and my memory for such things is hardly reliable.) I wonder if the feed lines for the sprinklers had been temporarily disconnected as part of the restoration project.
One point that doesn't seem to be getting much attention yet. I gather there's some suspicion of arson. I don't suggest that this question deserves as much attention as the fate of the ship does - but what kind of warped individual would do such a thing?
I'm fairly confident that the good people in charge of this project will, eventually, restore the ship to the point where she looks as good as ever. But she'll never be quite the same. The Cutty Sark was unusual in that, during the period when I've been visiting her (I first saw her in 1978), almost all of her fabric has been original. I watched the teak main deck planking getting replaced with a cheaper, Asian substitute back in '78, and I know many of the spars had been replaced long before that. And in '97 some workmen were replacing some individual hull planks, largely because water had seeped in where the iron bulwark plating joined the wood planks. And of course the Muntz metal hull sheathing isn't original. But when you stood in her hold you were, to all intents and purposes, surrounded by the same ship that sailed to China and Australia. (Such ships as the Constitution and the Victory, by contrast, have been restored so many times, and so much of their original fabric has been replaced, that they are, in many major respects, reconstructions of the original artifacts.) There's no doubt whatever that the current major restoration of the Cutty Sark was absolutely necessary to the old lady's survival - and I guess a certain percentage of her components would have had to be sacrificed even if the fire hadn't happened. But what a disgusting, tragic development this is.