Editorial

摘要

There has been much hand-wringing about the tragic loss of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art. The fire that recently ripped through the building is a harsh reminder of the fragility of our built heritage. It seems to have been almost unthinkable to most commentators that this could have happened. However, maritime historians are no strangers to the loss of architectural splendour and have reacted in a much more sanguine fashion. Mackintosh, unlike many architects of his time did not design any interiors for the liners that were being built in their multitude on the Clyde, but if he had, they would have long since been consigned to the scrapyard or to the bottom of the sea. Both Queen Elizabeth and Normandie were similarly consumed by fire and then sank, and of course there is always Titanic. And Lusitania. And countless others that have met a similar fate.