Historic ships handed £31m boost

Two of the UK's most famous historic ships are to be given a £31m boost out of lottery funds.

Some £21m has been awarded to the world's oldest surviving warship, the 16th Century Mary Rose, to build a museum around her in Portsmouth. Another £10m will go to help restore the Victorian tea clipper the Cutty Sark at Greenwich in southeast London. The ship was badly damaged by fire in dry dock part way through a £25m conservation project in May last year. The Mary Rose was Henry VIII's flagship and spent centuries at the bottom of the Solent after sinking in 1545. It was raised to the surface in 1982 after being rediscovered, and is now one of Portsmouth's major tourist attractions. The Cutty Sark was due to reopen to the public in November 2009 but work will take another year to complete following the fire. Scott & Linton in Dumbarton to transport tea from China built the 900-tonne ship in 1869.

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