UK Royals Offered Advice on Rare Ship Restoration

The head of a project to restore a rare 19th-century British ship badly damaged in a 2007 fire says his team won advice from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip.

Philip, also known as the Duke of Edinburgh, and the queen visited the Cutty Sark tea clipper in Greenwich, southeast London, on Wednesday to officially reopen the vessel to visitors after five years of work following the major blaze.

Richard Doughty, director of the Cutty Sark Trust, said the royal family had shared their experiences after suffering a serious fire at Windsor Castle in 1992, which caused extensive damage.

Philip had given the Cutty Sark team “moral support and some very practical advice,” and handling repairs following damage to the 143-year-old ship, Doughty said.