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Cutty Sark

Cutty Sark is a British clipper ship. Built on the River Leven, Dumbarton, Scotland in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, at the end of a long period of design development for this type of vessel, which ended as steamships took over their routes. She was named after the short shirt of the fictional witch in Robert Burns' poem Tam o' Shanter, first published in 1791.

After the big improvement in the fuel efficiency of steamships in 1866, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 gave them a shorter route to China, so Cutty Sark spent only a few years on the tea trade before turning to the trade in wool from Australia, where she held the record time to Britain for ten years. Continuing improvements in steam technology early in the 1880s meant that steamships also came to dominate the longer sailing route to Australia, and the ship was sold to the Portuguese company Ferreira and Co. in 1895 and renamed Ferreira. She continued as a cargo ship until purchased in 1922 by retired sea captain Wilfred Dowman, who used her as a training ship operating from Falmouth, Cornwall. After his death, Cutty Sark was transferred to the Thames Nautical Training College, Greenhithe, in 1938 where she became an auxiliary cadet training ship alongside HMS Worcester. By 1954, she had ceased to be useful as a cadet ship and was transferred to permanent dry dock at Greenwich, London, for public display.

Cutty Sark is listed by National Historic Ships as part of the National Historic Fleet (the nautical equivalent of a Grade 1 Listed Building). She is one of only three remaining intact composite construction (wooden hull on an iron frame) ships from the nineteenth century, the others being the clipper City of Adelaide, now in Port Adelaide, South Australia and the warship HMS Gannet in Chatham. The beached skeleton of Ambassador, of 1869 lying near Punta Arenas, Chile is the only other significant remnant of this construction method.

The ship has been damaged by fire twice in recent years, first on 21 May 2007 while undergoing conservation. She was restored and was reopened to the public on 25 April 2012. Funders for the Cutty Sark conservation project include: the Heritage Lottery Fund, the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Sammy Ofer Foundation, Greenwich Council, Greater London Authority, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Berry Brothers & Rudd, Michael Edwards and Alisher Usmanov.

On 19 October 2014 she was damaged in a smaller fire.

Cutty Sark whisky derives its name from the ship. An image of the clipper appears on the label, and the maker formerly sponsored the Cutty Sark Tall Ships Race. The ship also inspired the name of the Saunders Roe Cutty Sark flying boat.

Construction
Cutty Sark was ordered by ship-owner John Willis, who operated a shipping company founded by his father. The company had several ships in the tea trade from China to Britain. Speed was an advantage to vessels carrying a high-value, seasonal product, such as tea. Faster ships could obtain higher rates of freight (the price paid to transport the cargo), and tea merchants would use the names of fast-sailing ships that had carried their products in their advertising. Cutty Sark was ordered during a boom in building tea clippers in the period 1865–1869—something that was attributed to a substantial reduction in the import duties for tea. In 1868 the brand-new Aberdeen-built clipper, Thermopylae, set a record time of 61 days port to port on her maiden voyage from London to Melbourne and it was this design that Willis set out to better.

It is uncertain how the hull shape for Cutty Sark was chosen. Willis chose Hercules Linton to design and build the ship but Willis already possessed another ship, The Tweed, which he considered to have exceptional performance. The Tweed (originally Punjaub) was a frigate designed by Oliver Lang based on the lines of an old French frigate, built in Bombay for the East India Company as a combination sail/paddle steamer. She and a sister ship were purchased by Willis, who promptly sold the second ship plus engines from The Tweed for more than he paid for both. The Tweed was then lengthened and operated as a fast sailing vessel, but was considered too big for the tea runs. Willis also commissioned two all-iron clippers with designs based upon The Tweed, Hallowe'en and Blackadder. Linton was taken to view The Tweed in dry dock.

Willis considered that The Tweed's bow shape was responsible for her notable performance, and this form seems to have been adopted for Cutty Sark. Linton, however, felt that the stern was too barrel shaped and so gave Cutty Sark a squarer stern with less tumblehome. The broader stern increased the buoyancy of the ship's stern, making it lift more in heavy seas so it was less likely that waves would break over the stern, and over the helmsman at the wheel. Cutty Sark was given masts that followed the design of The Tweed, with similar good rake and the foremast on both placed further aft than usual.

A contract for Cutty Sark's construction was signed on 1 February 1869 with the firm of Scott & Linton, which had only been formed in May 1868. Their shipyard was at Dumbarton on the River Leven on a site previously occupied by shipbuilders William Denny & Brothers. The contract required the ship to be completed within six months at a contracted price of £17 per ton and maximum size of 950 tons. This was a highly competitive price for an experimental, state-of-the-art vessel, and for a customer requiring the highest standards. Payment would be made in seven instalments as the ship progressed, but with a penalty of £5 for every day the ship was late. The ship was to be built to Lloyd's A1 standard and her construction was supervised on behalf of Willis by Captain George Moodie, who would command her when completed. Construction delays occurred when the Lloyd's inspectors required additional strengthening in the ship.

Work on the ship was suspended when Scott and Linton ran out of money to continue. Rather than simply liquidate the company, an arrangement was made for Denny's to take over the contract and complete the ship, which was finally launched on 22 November 1869 by Captain Moodie's wife. The ship was moved to Denny's yard to have her masts fitted, and then on 20 December towed downriver to Greenock to have her running rigging installed. In the event, completing the ship meant the company's creditors were owed even more money than when work had first been halted.

Cutty Sark has a registered length of 212.5 ft, with a depth of hold of 21 ft and a net tonnage of 921. The hull is one of the sharpest of all the tea clippers: she has a coefficient of under deck tonnage of 0.55, compared to Thermopylae at 0.58. Cutty Sark's prismatic coefficient, another measure of hull sharpness, is 0.628; this allows comparison with US-built clippers studied by Howard I. Chapelle. After water-line length, the prismatic coefficient is the next most important determinant of potential hull speed. Unladen, or with a cargo of low density, ballast was required for stability. For example, when she was loaded with wool, 200 tons of ballast was carried. The largest wool cargo she ever carried was 900 tons' weight (the total of ballast and cargo of 1,100 tons is consistent with the estimated deadweight cargo capacity of 1,135 tons at 20-foot draught). The largest tea cargo carried was 615 tons' weight. Conversely, a dense cargo allowed full use of the deadweight capacity: if loaded with coal, she would usually carry 1,100 tons.

Broadly, the parts of the ship visible above the waterline were constructed from East India teak, while American rock elm was used for the ship's bottom. The stem, 15 x, and sternpost, 16.5 x, were of teak while the rudder was of English oak. The keel was replaced in the 1920s with one constructed from 15 in pitch pine. The deck was made of 3.5 in thick teak while the 'tween deck was 3 in yellow pine. The keel, 16.5 x, had on either side a garboard strake, 11 x, and then 6 in planking decreasing to 4.75 in at one-fifth the depth of the hold. Teak planking began at approximately the level of the bilge stringer. The hull was covered by Muntz metal sheeting up to the 18 ft depth mark, and all the external timbers were secured by Muntz metal bolts to the internal iron frame. The wrought-iron frame was an innovation first experimented with in shipbuilding in the 1840s, and was the standard building method for tea clippers by the middle of the 1860s. It consisted of frames (vertical), beams (horizontal) and cross bracing (diagonal members).

The diagonally-braced iron frame made for a strong, rigid ship; diagonal members prevent racking (shearing, where frame rectangles become parallelograms). Less working and leaking of the hull meant less crew time spent pumping, allowing more time to be spent on changes of sail. The wrought-iron-framed hull also took up less cargo space than an all-wood hull would have done. The Muntz metal sheeting reduced fouling of Cutty Sark's hull; with a cleaner hull, she could sail faster.

Performance
The maximum logged speed for Cutty Sark was 17.5 kn. Her greatest recorded distance in noon to noon sights was 363 nmi averaging 15 kn, although she recorded 2164 nmi in six days, which given the weather over the whole period implied she had achieved over 370 nmi some days. By comparison, Thermopylae's best recorded 24-hour distance was 358 nmi. On another occasion she recorded 3457 nmi in 11 days. Cutty Sark was considered to have the edge in a heavier wind, and Thermopylae in a lighter wind.

Name
The ship was named after Cutty-sark, the nickname of the witch Nannie Dee in Robert Burns's 1791 poem Tam o' Shanter. The ship's figurehead, the original of which has been attributed to carver Fredrick Hellyer of Blackwall, is a stark white carving of a bare-breasted Nannie Dee with long black hair holding a grey horse's tail in her hand. In the poem she wore a linen sark (Scots: a short chemise or undergarment ), that she had been given as a child, which explains why it was cutty, or in other words far too short. The erotic sight of her dancing in such a short undergarment caused Tam to cry out "Weel done, Cutty-sark", which subsequently became a well-known catchphrase. Originally, carvings by Hellyer of the other scantily clad witches followed behind the figurehead along the bow, but these were removed by Willis in deference to 'good taste'. Tam o' Shanter riding Meg was to be seen along the ship's quarter. The motto "Where theres a will is a way" was inscribed along the taffrail, with variable spaces enabling also the reading Where there(')s a Willis away. The Tweed, which acted as a model for much of the ship which followed her, had a figurehead depicting Tam o' Shanter.

First tea seasons
Cutty Sark was destined for the tea trade, a seasonal trade of a high-value cargo from China to London. Though the "premium" or bonus paid to the ship that arrived with the first tea of the year was abandoned after the Great Tea Race of 1866, faster ships could usually obtain a higher price for transporting their cargoes than others. Her first roundtrip voyage under captain George Moodie began 16 February 1870 from London with a cargo of wine, spirits and beer bound for Shanghai. The return journey, carrying 1305812 lb of tea from Shanghai, began 25 June, arriving 13 October in London via the Cape of Good Hope.

Cutty Sark sailed in eight "tea seasons", from London to China and back.

Competition from steamers
Cutty Sark's launch coincided with the opening of the Suez Canal to shipping in 1869. Her first trip encountered significant competition with steamships. The route from the Far East to London (and many other European ports) through the Suez Canal was shorter by about 3300 nmi, compared to sailing round the Cape of Good Hope. The route round Africa is in excess of 14000 nmi. Typically a clipper might log significantly more than that by planning her route for favourable winds. Whilst it was possible for a sailing vessel to take a tug through the canal, this was difficult and expensive. Furthermore, sailing conditions in the northern Red Sea were unsuited to the design of a tea clipper, so they still had to sail around Africa. The ability of a steamer to make, for example, 15 kn continuously, versus the fastest clipper voyage averaging under 6.5 kn over a longer distance, gave steamships not only a more predictable voyage time, but a substantially quicker one.

Less obviously, steamship design had taken a large step forward in 1866 with Agamemnon, using higher boiler pressure and a compound engine, so obtaining a large improvement in fuel efficiency. Ships of this type could compete with clippers before the Suez Canal opened.

When the tea clippers arrived in China in 1870, they found a big increase in the number of steamers, which were in high demand. The rate of freight to London that was given to steamers was nearly twice that paid to the sailing ships. Additionally, the insurance premium for a cargo of tea in a steamer was substantially less than for a sailing vessel. So successful were the steamers using the Suez Canal that, in 1871, 45 were built in Clyde shipyards alone for Far Eastern trade.

The numbers of tea clippers sailing to China each year steadily reduced, with many ships being sold and moving to general cargo work. Costs were kept to a minimum and rigs were often reduced to barque so that a smaller crew was needed.

Thermopylae
Cutty Sark's well-known race against Thermopylae took place in 1872, the two ships leaving Shanghai together on 18 June. Both ships were of similar size: length, beam and depths were within 1 ft of each other. The Thermopylae had a slightly larger capacity: 991 compared to 963 (GRT) or 948 compared to 921 (net). Two weeks later Cutty Sark had built up a lead of some 400 nmi, but then lost her rudder in a heavy gale after passing through the Sunda Strait. John Willis's brother was on board the ship and ordered Moodie to put into Cape Town for repairs. Moodie refused, and instead the ship's carpenter Henry Henderson constructed a new rudder from spare timbers and iron. This took six days, working in gales and heavy seas which meant the men were tossed about as they worked and the brazier used to heat the metal for working was spilled out, burning the captain's son. The ship finally arrived in London on 18 October a week after Thermopylae, a total passage of 122 days. The captain and crew were commended for their performance and Henderson received a £50 bonus for his work. This was the closest Cutty Sark came to being first ship home but it was Moodie's last trip as her captain before he transferred to steamships. He was replaced by Captain F. W. Moore.

Later tea seasons
Moore remained captain only for one round trip to China, taking 117 days for the return trip. This was 14 days longer than Thermopylae and 27 days longer than achieved by the iron ship Hallowe'en a few months later. Captain W. E. Tiptaft assumed command in 1873 achieving 118 days on his first return trip, but after the ship had to travel 600 nmi up the Yangtze River in search of a cargo. Steamships were now taking most of the tea. The following year the return journey took 122 days. In November 1877 the ship was anchored off Deal in the English Channel along with sixty other vessels, waiting out a great storm. The anchor failed to hold and Cutty Sark was blown through the ships, damaging two others before grounding on a mud bank. Fortunately she was pulled clear by the tug Macgregor before too much damage was caused and she was towed to the Thames for repairs.

In December 1877 the ship sailed from London to Sydney, where she took on coal for Shanghai, arriving there in April. However, the ship was unable to find any cargo of tea for a return trip to London—the days of the tea race were over. The master, Captain Tiptaft, died in October while still in Shanghai and was replaced by the first mate, James Wallace. The ship now had to take different cargoes around the world, including coal, jute, castor oil and tea to Australia.

In 1880 yards were shortened and the stun'sails removed. Also in 1880 an incident occurred on board during which the First Mate Sidney Smith killed seaman John Francis. Smith was allowed to leave the ship at Anjer by Captain Wallace, causing the crew to cease work in protest. Wallace continued the voyage with six apprentices and four tradesmen but became becalmed in the Java Sea for three days. In desperation as matters moved from bad to worse, he committed suicide by jumping overboard and disappeared. He was replaced as Master by William Bruce, who proved to be a drunken incompetent who claimed pay for non-existent crewmen and managed to set sail with inadequate provisions, resulting in the crew starving. An inquiry in New York in April 1882 resulted in the captain and mate being suspended and replaced by Captain Moore, previously of Blackadder.

Wool trade

In December 1883, Cutty Sark departed Newcastle, New South Wales with 4,289 bales of wool and 12 casks of tallow, arriving in London in just 83 days. This was 25 days faster than her nearest rival that year and heralded the start of a new career taking Australian wool to Britain in time for the January wool sales.

From 1885 to 1893, Cutty Sark was run between England and New South Wales under the agency of the Sydney-based Dangar, Gedye & Co. In 1885 Richard Woodget was appointed captain on a salary of £186 per year (£23,729.80 in 2019 when adjusted for inflation) and continued to improve on the fastest trip record, achieving 77 days on his first outward trip and 73 days returning to Britain from Australia. He achieved this by taking a more southerly route than previously, to catch the strongest winds in the Roaring Forties despite having to face icebergs, gales and storms whipped up by the winds he sought. Cutty Sark was the fastest ship on the wool trade for ten years. In July 1889 the log of the modern passenger steamship SS Britannia (1887) recorded that when steaming at 15 to 16 knots she was overtaken in the night by a sailing ship doing 17 knots, which proved to be Cutty Sark.

As Ferreira
Eventually steamships began to dominate the wool trade too and it ceased to be profitable for a sailing ship. In 1895 Jock Willis sold Cutty Sark to the Portuguese firm Joaquim Antunes Ferreira for £1,250. She was renamed Ferreira after the firm. Her crews referred to her as Pequena Camisola (little shirt, a straight translation of the Scots cutty sark).

The ship traded various cargoes between Portugal, Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans, Mozambique, Angola, and Britain. In May 1916 she was dismasted off the Cape of Good Hope because of the rolling of the ship in bad weather and had to be towed into Table Bay off Cape Town. Because of World War I, it was impossible to obtain suitable materials to replace the masts so she was re-rigged over 18 months to a barquentine sail arrangement.

In 1922 Ferreira was the last clipper operating anywhere in the world. Caught in a storm in the English Channel she put into Falmouth harbour where she was spotted by retired merchant navy captain Wilfred Dowman of Flushing, Cornwall, who was then operating the training ship Lady of Avenel. The ship returned to Lisbon, where she was sold to new owners and renamed Maria do Amparo (Mary of the Refuge, a name associated with the devotion of Our Lady of the Refuge; in Portuguese, "Nossa Senhora do Amparo").

As cadet training ship
Dowman persevered in his determination to buy the ship, which he did for £3,750 and she was returned to Falmouth harbour. The purchase was made with the support of Dowman's wife, artist Catharine Dowman (Courtauld), heiress daughter of Sydney Courtauld, crepe and silk manufacturer.

The rigging was restored to an approximation of the original arrangement and the ship was used as a cadet training ship. In 1924 she was used as committee boat for the regatta week in Fowey during that years regatta week as recalled to me by Mr. Arthur (Toby) West. As a historic survivor, the ship was opened to the public and visitors would be rowed out to inspect her. Dowman died in 1936 and the ship was given by Catharine Dowman, his widow, along with £5,000 for maintenance, to the Incorporated Thames Nautical Training College, HMS Worcester at Greenhithe. She was towed to Greenhithe by tug. The ship was crewed by cadets, 15-year-old Robert Wyld steering the ship during the voyage.

At Greenhithe Cutty Sark acted as an auxiliary vessel to HMS Worcester (1860) for sail training drill, but by 1950 she had become surplus to requirements. From February to October 1951 she was temporarily moved first for a refit and then to take part in the Festival of Britain at Deptford. On 30 January 1952, the 800-ton tanker MV Aqueity (1946) collided with Cutty Sark's bow in the Thames. The two ships were locked together after the collision which forced Cutty Sarks jibboom into Worcesters forecastle rails, snapping the boom before scraping along Worcester's starboard side. Cutty Sark's figurehead lost an arm in the process. Worcester was a condemned hulk, sunk at her moorings at the time, photographs showing her lying on her starboard side with her starboard side near the shore. Cutty Sark was anchored and towed to the Shadwell Basin where repairs were carried out by Green & Silley Weir Ltd. The damaged arm was recovered at Grays Thurrock and the figurehead was repaired.

Museum ship
In 1953 Cutty Sark was given to the Cutty Sark Preservation Society and in 1954 she was moved to a custom-built dry dock at Greenwich. She was stripped of upper masts, yards, deck-houses and ballast to lighten her before being towed from the East India Import Dock to the special dry dock at Greenwich. The skipper on this occasion was 83-year-old Captain C.E. Irving, who had sailed the world three times in her before he was 17. The river pilot was Ernest Coe. Thereafter the entrance tunnel to the dry dock was filled in, the river wall rebuilt and the work of re-rigging began. The foundation stone of the dry dock was laid by The Duke of Edinburgh, patron of the Cutty Sark Preservation Society, in June 1953. The restoration, re-rigging and preparation for public exhibition was estimated to cost £250,000.

Cutty Sark was preserved as a museum ship, and has since become a popular tourist attraction, and part of the National Historic Fleet. She is located near the centre of Greenwich, in south-east London, close to the National Maritime Museum, the former Greenwich Hospital, and Greenwich Park. She is also a prominent landmark on the route of the London Marathon and marks the finish of The Big Half. She usually flies signal flags from her ensign halyard reading "JKWS", which is the code representing Cutty Sark in the International Code of Signals, introduced in 1857.

The ship is in the care of the Cutty Sark Trust, whose president, the then Duke of Edinburgh, was instrumental in ensuring her preservation, when he set up the Cutty Sark Society in 1951. The Trust replaced the Society in 2000. She is a Grade I listed monument and was on the Buildings At Risk Register following the 2007 fire. The gallery beneath the ship holds the world's largest collection of ships' figureheads, donated to the Society by Sydney Cumbers in 1953.

Cutty Sark station on the Docklands Light Railway is one minute's walk away, with connections to central London and the London Underground. Greenwich Pier is next to the ship, and is served by scheduled river boats from piers in central London. A tourist information office stands to the east of the ship.

Conservation and fire
By the early 2000s, there were serious concerns about corrosion of the iron internal structure, and the hull was also becoming distorted because more weight was being carried on the keel than if the ship was afloat, when it would be evenly supported over the whole area below the waterline. An extensive conservation project was planned to overcome this, including repair and anti-corrosion painting of the framework and the addition of some additional steel ribs to add strength, and a new method of supporting the ship.

On the morning of 21 May 2007, Cutty Sark, which had been closed and partly dismantled for conservation work, caught fire, and burned for several hours before the London Fire Brigade could bring the fire under control. Initial reports indicated that the damage was extensive, with most of the wooden structure in the centre having been lost.

In an interview the next day, Richard Doughty, the chief executive of the Cutty Sark Trust, revealed that at least half of the "fabric" (timbers, etc.) of the ship had not been on site as it had been removed during the preservation work. Doughty stated that the trust was most worried about the state of iron framework to which the fabric was attached. He did not know how much more the ship would cost to restore, but estimated it at an additional £5–10 million, bringing the total cost of the ship's restoration to £30–35 million.

In initial investigations, the possibility was covered that the fire might have been started deliberately. The fire was later found to have most likely been caused by an industrial vacuum cleaner which had been left running over the weekend, compounded by the absence of the overnight fire watchers.

In a second incident on the morning of 19 October 2014, another fire broke out on the deck of the Cutty Sark. A small part of deck three and the hull timbers were damaged in the blaze. The London Fire Brigade managed to contain the blaze within an hour and she was reopened to the public shortly after.

Damage
Aerial video footage showed extensive damage, but seemed to indicate that the ship had not been destroyed in her entirety by the 2007 fire. A fire officer present at the scene said in a BBC interview that when they arrived, there had been "a well-developed fire throughout the ship". The bow section looked to be relatively unscathed and the stern also appeared to have survived without major damage; the fire seemed to have been concentrated in the centre of the ship. The chairman of Cutty Sark Enterprises said after inspecting the site: "The decks are unsalvageable but around 50% of the planking had already been removed; however, the damage is not as bad as originally expected."

As part of the restoration work planned before the fire, it was proposed that the ship be raised 3 m, to allow the construction of a state-of-the-art museum space beneath. This would allow visitors to view her from below.

There was criticism of the policies of the Cutty Sark Trust and its stance that the most important thing was to preserve as much as possible of the original fabric. Proponents of making her fit to go to sea advocated that the fire repairs be done in such a manner to enable her to do so.

However, the state of the timbers, especially the keel, and the fact that a hole had been cut through the hull in the 1950s for an access door, made this difficult. The Cutty Sark Trust said that less than five percent of the original fabric was lost in the fire, as the decks which were destroyed were additions not present at the original building.

The restoration work was criticised by The Victorian Society saying that the needs of the corporate hospitality market were put ahead of the preservation of the historic fabric of the ship. Building Design magazine awarded the project its Carbuncle Cup for the worst new building completed in 2012 saying "The scheme's myriad failings stem from one calamitous choice: the decision to hoick the 144-year-old clipper close to three metres into the air on canted steel props."

Fundraising

The design for the renovation project by Grimshaw architects with, during design development stage, newly established Youmeheshe architects and Buro Happold engineers involved raising the ship out of her dry berth using a Kevlar web, allowing visitors to pass under the hull to view it. Unfortunately it was discovered that the proposed web would not follow the reverse curves of the ship's hull which would effectively mask the hull's shape from view. An alternate design for the support of the ship had to be developed; this involved installing a deep steel belt around the hull tied by diagonal steel members passing through the hold to a new steel-reinforced keel. Horizontal tubular steel struts passing through the hold brace the diagonals apart while many of the corroded original hull frames have been doubled.

A new steelwork lower deck of contemporary design incorporating an amphitheatre feature was installed in the main hold while a glass-encased lift installed within the ship terminates in a new steel-and-glass housing structure on the weather deck. A second new steel-and-glass box has been installed above the forehold to enclose a new staircase. Access to the ship is through a new opening cut through the hull below the waterline in the ship's starboard quarter. The new access hole has required the addition of new steel framing. Visitors arriving on board the ship now do so via this entrance, which leads to the lower hold. Maldwin Drummond, Chairman of the Cutty Sark Trust, has explained in Classic Boat magazine's September 2010 issue the need to retain the spirit of the ship and he quotes the ideal that "The visitor should see the ship as though for some unexplained reason the crew had gone ashore". Doubts over the wisdom of Grimshaw's proposals have been raised by many ship conservationists including the Cutty Sark Trust's own engineer Peter Mason.

The project was costed at £25 million when it commenced in 2006 with £11.75 million of this total being provided by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Oscar-winning film producer Jerry Bruckheimer aided in the repair and restoration of Cutty Sark. A collection of photos taken by Bruckheimer went on display in London in November 2007 to help raise money for the Cutty Sark Conservation Project. The exhibition featured more than thirty pictures taken on set during the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

In January 2008, the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded the Cutty Sark Trust another £10 million towards the restoration of the ship, meaning that the Trust had now achieved £30 million of the £35 million needed for the completion of the project. In June 2008, Israeli shipping magnate Sammy Ofer donated the outstanding £3.3 million needed to fully restore the ship although by January 2009 the London Evening Standard reported that the cost had risen further to £40 million creating a new shortfall.

In February 2010, The Daily Telegraph reported the project cost had risen to £46 million with public money now being made available by London Borough of Greenwich to fill the funding gap.

Investigation conclusion
On 30 September 2008, the London Fire Brigade announced the conclusion of the investigation into the fire at a press conference at New Scotland Yard. The painstaking investigation was conducted by the Fire Brigade, along with London's Metropolitan Police Service, Forensic Science Services, and electrical examination experts Dr. Burgoyne's & Partners. They said that the most likely cause was the failure of an industrial vacuum cleaner that may have been left switched on over the weekend before the fire started. The report revealed no evidence that the ship was subjected to arson attack and concluded that the fire started accidentally.

Physical evidence and CCTV footage of the fire showed that it probably started towards the stern of the ship on the lower deck. All electrical equipment on board was examined and it was determined that an industrial vacuum cleaner in this area was normally running continuously to suck up dust and particles from work going on to break up concrete within the ship. No one working on the ship had responsibility to ensure all equipment was turned off at the end of each day, and no one recalled switching off the equipment on the Friday in question. The vacuum cleaner has three motors inside and after the fire one was found to be burned out in a manner which suggested it had failed while operating. This was not conclusive evidence, however, because the motor might previously have failed in service without causing a fire, and gone unnoticed because the other two motors had continued to function. Tests on similar cleaners showed they had no thermal cutout devices and while they could run safely indefinitely if filters inside were clear, if the airflow through the cleaner was blocked then it would eventually overheat and could catch fire. This might occur if the cleaner were full of dust and debris. The cleaner had failed previously and two motors had been replaced.

On the basis of witness evidence, the joint investigation team considered it unlikely that the fire was caused by the hot work (welding) that was being carried out as part of the renovation or by carelessly discarded smokers' materials. No one had visited this part of the ship since work stopped on Friday evening, and it was considered unlikely that a fire could have smouldered all weekend before finally breaking out Monday morning. However, it was discovered that although all hot work was supposed to be recorded and someone was supposed to check afterwards to ensure of no fires, there was no record that such checks had ever been made, and on at least one occasion hot work had been conducted with no records made.

The ship was patrolled by two security guards, both of whom were supposed to patrol independently at least once an hour, or once every two hours later in the night, one being primarily responsible for the visitor pavilion and one for the dock. The guards were required to keep a log of their patrols, but after the fire the relevant page was found to be missing from the book. It was later found, already filled in reporting uneventful patrols of the site up to 7 a.m. when the guards would have gone off duty. The alarm was raised when one of the guards called the fire brigade; before this the two reported that they had smelled burning plastic and had been investigating to try to determine its source.

A carpenter had visited the site on Sunday to collect some tools, but after 20 minutes attempting to contact a security guard to let him in, had climbed the fence, collected his tools and climbed out again. The carpenter reported that he had heard machinery operating towards the stern of the ship, but it was not clear whether this might have been the site diesel generator which ran at all times.

The ship was fitted with a temporary fire alarm system but it was unclear whether this had operated. A separate alarm within the pavilion did sound when smoke and heat reached that area, but the guards reported no ringing alarm before the fire was seen. Investigation afterwards discovered a faulty relay in the alarm panel which failed to switch power to the siren circuits when an alarm was triggered. However, the panel also contained a failed fuse in one siren circuit which suggested that the siren had activated but the fire shorted it out, and this might have also caused the relay to fail. The failed relay would have shut off power to the second siren circuit. Statements from workers suggested that weekly tests of the alarm system had not been carried out.

Mast specifications
The original mast specifications as laid down by the ship's designer still exist and are listed below as "tea rig". This arrangement was used during the ship's time on the tea trade route, where it was necessary to maximise the area of sail to get the greatest possible propulsion when the ship might be becalmed in the doldrums. For the route to Australia it was not necessary to carry such a large area of sail and the masts and yards were reduced. The tradewinds required great strength in masts, but the wind could best be captured by relatively small, high sails. A smaller rig also represented a saving in maintenance costs. Each of the three masts (fore, main and mizzen) is in three overlapping sections.

title: Cutty Sark


text:
Talk:Native Son

Untitled
I started to add the following:
 * Bigger befriends a white communist woman and returns to her house with her; her mother is blind and enters her daughter's bedroom while Bigger is there. Bigger, terrified,

Then the questions I don't remember the answers to: was she drunk? was he drunk? why did he put the pillow over her face? Has anyone read this more recently than 8 years ago? Koyaanis Qatsi 05:04 Jan 31, 2003 (UTC)

 * Working from a plot outline. Mary Dalton and her lover, Jan, befriend Bigger (not the other way round) took Bigger to the Communist meeting.  Bigger did not want to be friends with them, but it was his job. They all drank.  She was too drunk to take herself to bed.  Bigger helped her to her bedroom.  When her mother entered, Bigger covered Mary's face with a pilow to keep her quiet because he feared the mother's suspicions.  Mother smelled booze, decided daughter was drunk, left.  Bigger finds he has smothered her. Plot ensues.   Want more?  Ortolan88
 * No, that's plenty, thanks. I just couldn't remember the circumstances that led to the smothering.  Koyaanis Qatsi

Max
is it significant the character Max, Bigger's defense lawyer and a member of the communist party, closely resembles Marx, the author of The Communist Manifesto? perhaps I am simply yearning to find an irrelavant connection between the two.

Plot summary
Someone keeps removing this section. It may need trimming or modification but not complete removal. :: Kevinalewis  : (Talk Page) /(Desk)  09:41, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Just a note, the length of the summaries of books 1 and 2 sharply contrast the length of the summary of book 3. Can someone make sure that the plot summary lengths of the individual books are more equal? Thanks. Prayerfortheworld (talk) 02:02, 1 October 2010 (UTC)

Allusions and references in other works
"Calm like a Bomb" by Rage Against the Machine references this novel (This is the Native Son, born of Zapata's guns), as well as James Baldwin's return home from Paris. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.112.148.30 (talk) 19:06, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

"Native Son" is mentioned in Chapter 22 of Ralph Ellison's masterpiece novel "Invisible Man" published in 1952.

Where does this appear in Chp. 22 of "Invisible Man" ??? It is not in my copy of the text.

75.97.14.140 (talk) 18:29, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

Citations needed?
The quotations in the third paragraph of the introduction, from Baldwin and Fanon — do these need citations? Gtraylor (talk) 14:07, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

Influence of Communisn
I put the third paragraph in the "Influence of Communism" section into comments because, unlike the preceding two paragraphs which describe the arguments made by various critics, this paragraph begins making its own argument in the manner of a school essay. I know there are templates to use when an article or section is written like an essay, but I'm not sure how to handle it when it's just a single paragraph. -Literally Satan (talk) 07:44, 21 May 2024 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Native Son


text: User:Incipit~enwiki

title: User:Incipit~enwiki


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User talk:Incipit~enwiki

Hello and Welcome! I hope you like the place. --mav

 * Hello, thanks. I found it an interesting place and decided to contribute Incipit

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title: User talk:Incipit~enwiki


text: User:GuruJ

title: User:GuruJ


text:
User talk:GuruJ

Hello and Welcome! I hope you like the place. --mav

Terry C. Shulman moved to draftspace
An article you recently created, Terry C. Shulman, is not suitable as written to remain published. It needs more citations from reliable, independent sources. (?) Information that can't be referenced should be removed (verifiability is of central importance on Wikipedia). I've moved your draft to draftspace (with a prefix of " " before the article title) where you can incubate the article with minimal disruption. When you feel the article meets Wikipedia's general notability guideline and thus is ready for mainspace, please click on the "Submit your draft for review!" button at the top of the page. GPL93 (talk) 13:09, 20 May 2021 (UTC)

Welcome!
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Your submission at Articles for creation: Terry C. Shulman (July 9)
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Proposed deletion of Aussie

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Nomination of Aussie for deletion
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title: User talk:GuruJ


text: User:Workisfun

title: User:Workisfun


text:
User talk:Workisfun

Hello and Welcome! I hope you like the place. --mav

With regard to BEAM, do you think you could use capital letters and punctuation? A spelling checker wouldn't hurt either :) Cgs

title: User talk:Workisfun


text:
Eric Bana

Eric Martin Andrew Banadinović, (born 9 August 1968), known professionally as Eric Bana, is an Australian actor. He began his career in the sketch comedy series Full Frontal before gaining notice in the comedy drama The Castle (1997). He achieved further critical recognition for starring in the biographical crime film Chopper (2000), and as the titular character in Hulk (2003).

After a decade of roles in Australian TV shows and films, Bana gained Hollywood's attention for his performance in the war film Black Hawk Down (2001). He played Hector in the war epic Troy (2004), and took a leading role in Steven Spielberg's historical thriller Munich (2005). In 2009, he played the villain Nero in the science-fiction film Star Trek, which was a critical and commercial success. Bana continued to work steadily in the 2010s, portraying Lieutenant commander Erik S. Kristensen in Lone Survivor (2013), and playing police sergeant Ralph Sarchie in the horror film Deliver Us from Evil (2014). In 2018, Bana played the title role in a true crime miniseries, Dirty John. In 2020, he returned to Australia to star in outback thriller The Dry.

Bana is the recipient of several Australian Film Institute awards and has performed distinctive lead and character roles across a wide spectrum of genres—from epics, to science fiction and action thrillers. In addition to acting, Bana is a motor racing enthusiast, and has participated in various racing competitions in Australia. Bana was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for his services to drama.

Early life and education
Eric Martin Andrew Banadinović was born on 9 August 1968 in Melbourne, Victoria. His father Ivan was Croatian, born in Zagreb, and worked as a logistics manager for Caterpillar Inc., and his German mother, Eleanor, was a hairdresser, originally from near Mannheim in Germany. He has one older brother, Anthony. He has stated: "I have always been proud of my origin, which had a big influence on my upbringing. I have always been in the company of people of European origin". He was raised Catholic.

Bana was raised in Melbourne's Tullamarine, a suburban area on the northern edge of the city, and attended Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School.

Showing acting skill early in life, Bana began doing impressions of family members at the age of six or seven, first mimicking his grandfather's walk, voice and mannerisms. In school, he mimicked his teachers as a means to get out of trouble. As a teen, he watched the Mel Gibson film Mad Max, and decided he wanted to become an actor. However, he did not seriously consider a career in the performing arts until 1991, when he was persuaded to try comedy while working as a barman at Melbourne's Castle Hotel. His stand-up gigs in inner-city pubs did not provide him with enough income to support himself, however, so he continued his work as a barman and waiting on tables.

1993–1997: Beginnings
In 1993, Bana made his television debut on Steve Vizard's late-night talk show, Tonight Live. His performance gained the attention of producers from the sketch comedy series, Full Frontal, who invited him to join the show as a writer and performer. During his four years on the show, Bana wrote much of his own material, and based some of his characters on members of his family. His impressions of Columbo, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Cruise and Australian TV personality Ray Martin made Bana popular with the show's audience. This success led him to record the comedy album Out of Bounds in 1994 and to host his own television special, titled Eric, in 1996. The show, a collection of sketches featuring everyday characters, prompted him to launch a sketch comedy series The Eric Bana Show. The series, written and performed by Bana, featured skits, stand-up and celebrity guests, but failed to attract a substantial audience and was cancelled after only eight episodes due to low ratings. Even so, in 1997, he received a Logie Award for "Most Popular Comedy Personality" for his work on the show.

In that same year, Bana made his film debut in the Australian film The Castle, which tells the story of a Melbourne-based family's struggles to keep their home by Melbourne's airport as the airport authority force them to move. He was featured in a supporting role as Con Petropoulous, a kickboxing accountant who is the householder's son-in-law. The Castle was a surprise critical and financial success, earning A$10,326,428 at the box office in Australia.

1998–2004: Hollywood breakthrough
In 1997, despite his inexperience with dramatic roles, Bana was approached by director Andrew Dominik to appear in the film Chopper (2000), a biographical film based on the life of infamous Australian criminal Chopper Read. Dominik had been working on the project for five years, but was unable to find an actor to portray Read. Only after Read himself suggested Bana, having seen him perform a skit on television, did Dominik consider him for the part.

For the role, Bana shaved his head, gained 30 lb, and spent two days with Read to perfect his mimicry. During filming he arrived on set at four in the morning and spent five hours being covered in Read's trademark tattoos. In spite of the film's limited release outside of Australia, Bana's performance received positive reviews. American film critic Roger Ebert complimented Bana, stating that "in a comedian named Eric Bana the filmmakers have found, I think, a future star [...] He has a quality no acting school can teach you and few actors can match. You cannot look away from him". Chopper was a critical and financial success in Australia, and was nominated for Best Film at the Australian Film Institute Awards in 2001. Bana's performance won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor.

In 2001, director Ridley Scott cast Bana as an American soldier in the film Black Hawk Down (2001). Scott, with a recommendation from Russell Crowe and impressed by Bana's performance in Chopper, did not require him to audition. In the film, he played Sergeant First Class Norm 'Hoot' Hooten, an elite Delta Force soldier, who fights his way out of a battle in Mogadishu, Somalia after a mission to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord goes awry. Bana shed the weight he had gained for Chopper and began an exercise regimen months before filming began. He also trained with Delta Force operators at Fort Bragg, learning to fire weapons and clear rooms. Between 2000 and 2001, Bana played Joe Sabatini in Something in the Air, an Australian soap opera set in a small town. After two seasons, Bana left the show to focus on his Hollywood career.

Bana's next project was 2002's low-budget Australian film The Nugget. A comedy, the film portrays the effect of instant wealth on three working-class men and was released with moderate success in Australia. Bana read the script after filming Chopper in 2000 and was drawn to it because it reminded him of his childhood, and because he found its characters amusing and likable. While filming The Nugget, Bana was offered the lead role of Bruce Banner in the film adaptation of the popular Marvel comic book series The Incredible Hulk. Only after learning of director Ang Lee's involvement in the project did he consider the role. Bana admired Lee for his work on the film The Ice Storm and agreed to work on the film before the final script was complete. He said he was drawn to the film because "the character of Bruce Banner had dramatic potential", and was "a fairly non-traditional superhero". Although Hulk (2003) received mixed reviews and was a moderate success at the box office, Bana's performance was highly praised: Jack Matthews of New York Daily News felt that Bana played the role of Bruce Banner "with great conviction".

In 2003, he voiced hammerhead shark Anchor in the critically and commercially acclaimed animated Pixar film Finding Nemo. In 2004, Bana co-starred with Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom in the war epic Troy. He portrayed Prince Hector, leader of the Trojan forces battling against the Greek warrior Achilles. When he read the script, he was drawn to Hector because "I really felt a lot for him. I felt he was just a wonderful character [...] Orlando I love to death, and we've worked together before and when he was cast as my younger brother, it was just a great feel and I hope that shows in the film." Bana also had prepared for the role by taking lessons in sword training and learning to ride horseback. Although Troy's critical reaction was mixed, the film was a financial success, grossing US$497 million. Bana's portrayal was well received; Stella Papamichael of the BBC thought he was "magnetic", and The Washington Post's Desson Thomson believed his "touching" performance.

2005–2010: Historical films and Star Trek
After the varied reception of Hulk and Troy, film critics questioned Bana's bankability in big-budget films. He responded in Empire magazine: "It's not like it [Hulk] was a flop. When you're on a long shoot it is a long personal investment. If I wasn't happy with the end result I'd be bloody upset, but in every case so far I've been happy. Troy could take $50 and I wouldn't regret it."

The following year, 2005, Bana co-starred with Daniel Craig and Geoffrey Rush in Steven Spielberg's controversial thriller Munich. Bana played Avner, a Mossad agent, who is ordered to track down and kill the Black September terrorists thought to be responsible for the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics. The film garnered praise from critics, and grossed $131 million worldwide. It was nominated for five Academy Awards in 2006. The Los Angeles Times wrote that Bana as Avner "projects a combination of sensitivity and ruthlessness and [...] knows how to present a face for which worry is a new experience." The Telegraph was equally impressed with Bana's emotional and "sublimely convincing" portrayal.

In 2006 Bana was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Lucky You, a romantic comedy on which Bana worked before filming Munich, was released in early 2007. In the film, he played Huck Cheever, a professional poker player who must overcome his personal problems to win a high-stakes tournament in Las Vegas. Lucky You was negatively received; one critic opined that Bana's performance "simply isn't appealing enough to make us care if he succeeds or fails." His next film was the Australian drama Romulus, My Father (2007). The film, based on Raimond Gaita's memoir of the same title, portrays a couple and their struggle in the face of adversity to raise their son. Upon release, the film was a critical success, and Bana's performance earned him a second Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor.

Bana's next project was the historical drama The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). In this feature, he played Henry VIII of England opposite Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman. Bana was surprised to be offered the role and admitted that he "probably would have just passed it on without even opening it" if it had been presented to him under a different title. The following year, he co-starred with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto in the science fiction film Star Trek. In the film, Bana played Nero, a Romulan mining ship captain who attempts to exact revenge on Spock, whom he blames for the destruction of his homeworld and its inhabitants. To prepare for the role, Bana shaved his head, and donned face tattoos; director J. J. Abrams was impressed with his villainous appearance. The film was positively received, and grossed over US$380 million worldwide. Bana later recalled, "It was an unbelievable experience, and it's such a great group of actors", but he did not reprise his role in the 2013 sequel, saying "It was just a one-time for me." In 2009, he also appeared in the science fiction The Time Traveler's Wife, based on Audrey Niffenegger's 2003 novel of the same title. Directed by Robert Schwentke, the film stars Rachel McAdams and Ron Livingston. The story follows Henry DeTamble (Bana), a Chicago librarian with a paranormal genetic disorder that causes him to randomly time travel as he tries to build a romantic relationship with Clare Abshire (McAdams), who would become his wife. While the film garnered mostly negative reviews, the critic from The Sydney Morning Herald complimented the chemistry between Bana and McAdams: "Together they achieve an intimacy which does its best to distract you from the flaws in the script". Bana co-starred with Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen in Judd Apatow's 2009 feature about a famous comedian, Funny People, marking Bana's first appearance in an American mainstream comedy. Rogen had cast Bana because he was a fan of his early television work, and impressed by his performance in Munich. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine gave the film 3½ out of 4 stars, and opined that Bana's performance showed "real comic flair". Funny People was a commercial failure, earning US$71 million from a budget of $75 million. Also in 2009 Bana directed and starred in the documentary Love the Beast. It details his personal relationship with his first car, a Ford GT Falcon Coupe, and follows his progression as a car lover. Along the way, he seeks guidance and wisdom from his three lifelong friends, as well as celebrities Jay Leno, Jeremy Clarkson and Dr. Phil. Lastly, Bana provided the voice of Damien, a Greek Australian, in the animation Mary and Max (2009).

2011–present: Career progression
In 2011, Bana played ex-CIA operative Erik Heller in the action thriller Hanna, starring alongside Saoirse Ronan and Cate Blanchett. The film became a success for Bana as it opened at number two at the United States box office. Several media outlets praised Bana's performance, with one critic describing it as having "a note of haunted soulfulness". A year later, Bana starred in the Deadfall, a crime drama that follows two siblings who decide to fend for themselves after a failed casino heist. According to Metacritic, the film gained "mixed or average reviews, but Andrew O'Hehir of Salon magazine enjoyed Bana's "charismatic stone-cold killer character".

Bana portrayed Lieutenant Commander Erik S. Kristensen in Lone Survivor (2013). He said, "Pete Berg [the director] and I nearly worked together many, many years ago before anyone knew who I was and we stayed in contact [...] he called me and told me he was making the film and would like me to play the mission commander Kristensen, I just jumped at the chance. I love the story. I thought it could potentially make a compelling movie and I knew that Pete was the right person for the job". Upon release, Lone Survivor grossed US$154.8 million at the worldwide box office. Variety magazine thought that Bana was well cast, and critic Mick LaSelle praised the actors for being "convincing in their humanity, agony and ferocity". Bana then appeared in the thriller Closed Circuit (2013), alongside Rebecca Hall, as a lawyer, defending a Turkish man accused of planning a terrorist attack in London. Upon release, the Chicago Reader critic thought Bana and Hall lacked chemistry, and NPR's reviewer wrote that Bana had a "consistently clenched jaw and inconsistent slippage into Aussie diction."

The following year, Bana starred as Ralph Sarchie, a police sergeant who investigates paranormal cases, in the supernatural horror Deliver Us from Evil. The film was released on 2 July 2014 and grossed US$87.9 million worldwide. Several critics disliked the film, including Donald Clarke of The Irish Times who thought Bana was miscast. In 2016, he played Frank Bonneville, a struggling radio journalist in Ricky Gervais's Special Correspondents. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and Netflix bought the rights to stream the film on its platform. Although reviews were largely negative, one reviewer thought Bana "upstaged" Gervais and gave a watchable performance. Bana also had a role in Disney's The Finest Hours (2016), playing Coast Guard warrant officer David Cluff. In that same year, Bana played doctor Stephen Grene in The Secret Scripture, based on the novel of the same title by Sebastian Barry. Although the film was poorly received, Sandra Hall from The Sydney Morning Herald thought Bana's character showed "quiet intensity".

In 2017, Bana took the role of Uther Pendragon, king of Britain and father of future King Arthur, in Guy Ritchie's King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017). In the same year, Bana starred in a British drama, The Forgiven, playing the murderer Piet Blomfield. The Forgiven gained a mixed reception; the Village Voice critic praised the acting but opined that the film was unfocused. In 2018, Bana played John in the Bravo miniseries Dirty John, based on the true crime podcast of the same name by Christopher Goffard. Creator Alexandra Cunningham said that Bana was her first choice for the lead role; Bana is very selective about picking the "right" characters. He said, "It doesn't matter what. Every film I've done, that's always been the guiding decision-making thing, for sure." David Sexton of the Evening Standard thought he was perfect: "Bana is terrific as Dirty John, so sexy and appealing yet creepy too." In 2021, Bana starred in a mystery drama, The Dry, based on the book of the same name by Jane Harper. In that same year, Bana provided the voice of zookeeper Chaz in the animation Back to the Outback. In 2022, he voiced Monterey Jack in the animation Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, and appeared in the drama Blueback; it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Personal life
On official identity documents he still has his birth surname, Banadinović.

In 1995 while working on the television series Full Frontal, Bana began dating Rebecca Gleeson, a publicist with the Seven Network and daughter of then Chief Justice of New South Wales, and later Chief Justice of Australia, Murray Gleeson. They married in 1997, after Bana proposed to her on a trip to the United States, which he won from Cleo Magazine after being named their "Bachelor of the Year" in 1996. Bana and Gleeson have two children and live in Melbourne. His sister-in-law is current High Court of Australia Judge Jacqueline Gleeson.

Bana was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for his services to drama.

Interests and hobbies
Bana is a motor racing enthusiast, and participates in various racing competitions in Australia. At the age of 14, he wanted to leave school to focus full-time on becoming a motor mechanic, but his father convinced him to complete school, advising him to avoid making his hobby a job. Bana purchased his first car, a 1974 XB Ford Falcon coupé, at the age of 15 for A$1,100 and, driving it, made his motor sport racing debut in Targa Tasmania 1996, a week-long race around Tasmania. In 2004, Bana purchased a Porsche 944 to compete in Australia's Porsche Challenge. Competing throughout 2004 he often finished in the top ten and in November, finished fourth at the Sandown event, a personal best. On 21 April 2007, Bana crashed his 1974 XB Falcon Coupe in the 2007 Targa Tasmania rally; he and his co-driver were uninjured. Bana appeared on the British motoring show Top Gear on 15 November 2009 as a guest for its "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" segment.

Bana is a prominent fan of Australian rules football. His love of the sport began at a young age when his godfather took him to games to see the St Kilda Football Club, his favourite team in the Australian Football League (AFL). Bana has been seen at AFL games when he is back in Australia. His love for St Kilda FC resulted in the club being featured in the film Funny People and in Bana's promotion of the film in 2009, notably on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. In 2010, Bana was named the "Saints Number One Ticket Holder".

Charity work
Bana is an ambassador for Father Chris Riley's charity for homeless young people, Youth Off The Streets, and has appeared with Riley in advertisements to support the organisation's annual appeal. Bana is also an advocate for the Mental Illness Fellowship, which works to increase the awareness of mental illness in Australia. In 2004, he appeared in several high-profile advertisements for the fellowship. Bana is also active in campaigns with the Australian Childhood Foundation and the Bone Marrow Donor Institute. Since 1995, he has participated in the Motorcycle Riders Association Toy Run in Melbourne, which raises money and toys for children in need at Christmas.

In 2005 Bana narrated the documentary Terrors of Tasmania about the endangered Tasmanian devil. The film followed the life of a female Tasmanian devil called Manganinnie and discussed the incurable facial cancer which threatens the survival of the species. He has also worked with RSPCA Australia, donating money to animal shelters in Berlin while filming Troy in 2004.

In 2007 Bana introduced the episode Some Meaning in This Life of the ABC-TV documentary series Australian Story. The episode paid tribute to actress Belinda Emmett, who co-starred with Bana in the film The Nugget and died from cancer the previous year.

During the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, Bana voiced a series of radio and television advertisements to support donations to the Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund.

title: Eric Bana


text:
User:ThirdParty

 * Nationality: United States
 * Political Affiliation: Libertarian, primarily for its civil liberties stance.
 * Location: New Jersey
 * Occupation: Academics / Philosophy
 * Religion: Rational / Atheist
 * Life Philosophy: Transhumanist

 * things that I avidly dislike:
 * political correctness
 * racism and speciesism
 * fundamentalism, and religion in general

title: User:ThirdParty


text:
Full Frontal

Full Frontal may refer to:

 * Full Frontal (play), a 1979 play by Michael Hastings
 * Full Frontal (Australian TV series), an Australian sketch comedy series which debuted in 1993
 * Full Frontal (film), a 2002 film by Steven Soderbergh
 * Full frontal nudity as a state of nudity in general
 * Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, an American news satire series on TBS
 * Full Frontal, a 2001 film by Kyle Schickner
 * Full Frontal, a character from Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn
 * "Full Frontal Nudity", the eighth episode of the first series of Monty Python's Flying Circus

title: Full Frontal


text:
Fast Forward (Australian TV series)

Fast Forward was Australia's highest-rating and most critically awarded commercial television sketch comedy show, broadcast for 90 one-hour episodes from 12 April 1989 to 26 November 1992.

The show was produced by Steve Vizard, who was also the executive producer, writer and performer, and starred Jane Turner, Gina Riley, Magda Szubanski (the three of whom went on to star in Kath & Kim), Marg Downey, Michael Veitch, Peter Moon, Alan Pentland, Steve Blackburn, Geoff Brooks, Ernie Dingo, the Rubbery Figures satirical puppets, and numerous guests and supporting stars, such as Gerry Connolly and Bryan Dawe.

Fast Forward was succeeded by the related series Full Frontal, and subsequently Totally Full Frontal, which were broadcast from 1993 to 1999. Full Frontal had a different main cast, but many of the Fast Forward cast guest starred.

Fast Forward was directed by Ted Emery. From its second series onward, Andrew Knight joined Steve Vizard and Ted Emery as executive producers of the show. They went on to establish the leading Australian production house, Artist Services.

All four seasons plus five 'best of' compilations of Fast Forward have been released on DVD. All four seasons were re-released in 2010.

In 2013, the Network Ten-owned channel, One, began airing half-hour-long specials titled Fast Forward Funniest Send-Ups which first aired in 1994, making it the first time the show has been shown since 1998.

Background
Many of the stars came from a 1985 Seven Network sketch comedy pilot called The Eleventh Hour, which also spawned The Comedy Company, via The D-Generation. Fast Forward was commissioned by Seven in late 1988. It was produced by Vizard's production company, United Film Completion, and broadcast on Seven Network. There were a number of working titles for the show, including Snapped Cable Television, as well as Fast Forward.

Style
Fast Forward was noted for its fast-paced satirical comedy which particularly lampooned the media, in particular film and TV, with its parodies of well-known television shows (such as Kung Fu, Lost In Space, The Munsters, and A Current Affair), personalities (such as Clive James, Jana Wendt, Derryn Hinch and Geoffrey Robertson) and commercials (such as for American Express and Nescafé).

Its subjects were also Australian politics, which it attacked through various political impersonations (including John Howard and Paul Keating), and also using the political puppets, Rubbery Figures, previously seen in small segments on the ABC, based on Peter Nicholson's political cartoons.

Another key distinguishing feature was the use of simulated channel surfing to switch from sketch to sketch, often in the middle of a sketch, sometimes after the punchline. Particularly a sketch would abruptly switch to a momentary segment of static, followed by another sketch, simulating the effect of the viewer repeatedly switching channels. The channel-surfing device became a distinctive hallmark of the show that helped move quickly from sketch to sketch.

The television and multimedia subject matter of the sketches, pace, style and devices were real points of difference from predecessor sketch comedy shows of the time, particularly earlier shows such as The Mavis Bramston Show, The Naked Vicar Show, Australia You're Standing In It, The D-Generation and The Comedy Company, Fast Forward was more media-focused and parody-focused; a real difference, and the binding force for the whole show, was the now-famous channel-changing device. The white noise and on-screen static that represented the channel change became the modern television equivalent of a curtain being drawn at an old-fashioned vaudeville show.

Fast Forward was also well known for its musical parodies, particularly of current music video clips. Some of the better-known music parodies included ABBA, Cher and Dannii Minogue.

Sketches and content
Each episode of Fast Forward featured regular characters, a news-based segment, a major parody of a well-known television show or film, lampoons of television commercials, political satire, particularly in a segment using the Rubbery Figures political puppets.

Some of the most memorable regular characters included:
 * Marg Downey: SBS Presenter
 * Magda Szubanski: Pixie-Ann Wheatley; Chenille the Beautician (with Marg Downey as Janelle); the Ugly Couple (with Peter Moon)
 * Steve Vizard and Peter Moon: Advertising executives, Brent Smythe and Barry; Indian Rug Fakari salesmen Roger Ramshet and Abdul
 * Michael Veitch: gay flight attendants (with Steve Vizard); Kelvin Cunnington; Redmond Herring
 * Gerry Connolly: the Queen; Joh Bjelke-Petersen
 * Jane Turner: Russian news presenter Sveter (with Peter Moon as Victor), an early incarnation of Kath Day-Knight.
 * Steve Vizard: Darren Hunch (parody of Derryn Hinch)
 * Ernie Dingo: Robert Gottliebsen
 * Steve Blackburn and Geoff Brooks: Arthur and Wayne Dodgy (dodgy salesmen who previously appeared in Australia You're Standing In It)
 * Michael Veitch and Glenn Robbins: The Whizz Bang Theatre Company

Some of the most memorable sketches included "Dumb Street", a parody of Home and Away and Neighbours; and a lampoon of Skippy. In one memorable sketch that went to air, Moon and Vizard were both visibly trying to contain their laughter through a series of insults in one of their parodies of Kung Fu.

The political puppets Rubbery Figures were made more "commercial" than on the ABC by inserting them into popular situations outside the political Canberra environment. This led to the Star Trek parody where Paul Keating was Mr. Spock and Bob Hawke was Captain Kirk. Rubbery Figures was a huge hit and a crucial element in the early success of Fast Forward.

In 1991, there were five Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends skits featuring Ertl Thomas models. These segments involved people complaining about Sodor not having female steam engines, the Fat Controller polluting the countryside by pouring purple slime out of the tankers, drunken punks, the engines going on strike, and the engines getting replaced. In these skits, Thomas would do some human things, such as eating breakfast, writing, and going away for the weekend. Percy was referred to as Bertie two times in the first sketch, Gordon at the end of the fourth, and Henry one time in the fifth. The sketches had five original engine characters, Crazy Bartholomew the Loco Locomotive, who was a Thomas model painted yellow, Alfred, who was a Percy model painted red (he was even referred to as Percy at the start of the fifth sketch), Damian the Diesel, who isn't seen in person, Edgar, who is a mentioned engine character, and one of the female engines, who was a Percy model painted orange with additional detailing. Toby was also mentioned once at the end of the first sketch, and so was Clarabel once in the fourth sketch.

Episodes
Source:

Specials

 * Fast Forward Exposed (20 April 1993, 45 minutes)
 * A Royal Commission into the Australian Economy (5 May 1993, 90 minutes)
 * 38 and a Bit Fabulous Years of Australian Television (13 February 1994, 60 minutes)
 * The Making of Nothing (20 February 1994, 60 minutes)
 * Standing on the Road (1994, 60 minutes)
 * Fast Forward Rewind (4 July 1994, 60 minutes)
 * Fast Forward's Funniest TV Send-Ups (1994, 12 half-hour episodes)
 * Fast Forward's Funniest Moments (1998, 12 one-hour episodes)
 * Ten-Year Bash (October 2002, 48 minutes)
 * One More Round (2003, 60 minutes)
 * Dragging up the Past (2003, 60 minutes)

Reception
Fast Forward consistently won the ratings for all of its 90 episodes, generally rating in the mid- to high 30s.

The production team and cast decided in late 1992, despite offers to renew from Channel 7, to end the program 'on a high', feeling that they did not want it to go downhill and tarnish its legacy as one of Australia's best-ever sketch comedy shows.

Awards and nominations
In 1990, Fast Forward won two Logie awards; it also received two Australian Television awards (Penguins) for Excellence in Make-up and Achievement in Production. Also in 1990, the company was bestowed with two AWGIES, the Australian Writers' Guild Awards; one for Fast Forward for best Comedy/Revue/Sketch and the other for Vizard, Co-writer Best Sketch Comedy – Fast Forward. The Variety Club awarded Vizard Comedy Artist Of The Year and Rolling Stone magazine awarded him Television Performer of the Year.

At the 1991 Logie Awards Steve Vizard won the Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television. Vizard also won Most Popular Male Light Entertainer. Magda Szubanski won Most Popular Female Light Entertainer and Fast Forward was awarded Most Popular Light Entertainment Program. Also in 1991, the Fast Forward writing team won an AWGIE for Best Sketch Comedy for Fast Forward.

At the 1992 Logies, Magda Szubanski once again picked up the award for Most Popular Female Performer – Light Entertainment and Fast Forward received the Logie for Most Popular Light Entertainment Program. The Australian Writers Guild presented an AWGIE to Fast Forward for Best Sketch Comedy. Fast Forward also picked up a People's Choice Award for Most Popular Program on Australian Television.

The following year, 1993, Fast Forward won a Logie for Most Popular Comedy Program.

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony held by the Australian Recording Industry Association. They commenced in 1987.
 * ARIA Music Awards

! Ref.
 * 1990
 * Fast Forward - Take One
 * Best Comedy Release
 * Nominated
 * Nominated

Adaptation
The show was adapted for German television under the name "Switch" by order of TV station ProSieben. It was aired for the first time in 1997.

title: Fast Forward (Australian TV series)