The masts and spars of the world-famous Cutty Sark are being moved to the Chatham Historic Dockyard.
The £25m Cutty Sark Conservation Project started earlier this month with Lottery funding and is designed to preserve the fabric of the world’s most famous merchant ship and ensure it has a sustainable future.
The first part of this huge operation was to lift the masts out of the last surviving tea clipper in the world.
The first batch of spars were delivered to Chatham last week and the remainder of the spars and the 100 foot long masts, which are made of timber and metal, were delivered to Chatham this week.
The three masts weigh 16 tonnes each.
The masts and spars, some of which are almost 100 feet long will be on display to visitors to the Historic Dockyard.
They will be stored between HM Submarine Ocelot – the last submarine built for the Royal Navy at Chatham – and HMS Gannet, the last remaining sloop of Queen Victoria’s navy.
During this time, they will be accessible to the public through a series of interpretation panels.
Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust chief executive Bill Ferris said: “What a superb opportunity for two maritime heritage organisations who have both benefited from Heritage Lottery Funding to work together on such an important conservation project.
“We welcome Cutty Sark to The Historic Dockyard Chatham and look forward to showing her masts and spars off to all our visitors in 2007.”
POSTED: 01/12/2006 10:42:09
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