LONDON, May 21: The Cutty Sark, the world’s last remaining tea clipper and a major London tourist attraction, was seriously damaged by fire on Monday —but restorers insisted they can salvage the historic ship.

A British national treasure and one of the world’s most famous ships, the 138-year-old vessel was engulfed in flames at dawn.

Police are treating the fire as ‘suspicious’.

Firefighters took more than three hours to extinguish the blaze completely. However, only good fortune prevented the damage from being much worse.

The vessel has been undergoing a $49 million restoration since November, due to end in 2009.

Fifty per cent of the ship’s timbers had been put into storage during the conservation project. About 80 per cent of what remained was damaged, said Chris Livett, the chairman of Cutty Sark Enterprises.

He insisted the ship had weathered many a storm in its time and was “not dead yet.”

“This is going to make us even more determined to get this ship back up and running and keep her as original as possible,” he said.—AFP