City of Adelaide (1864)

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Coordinates: 55°36′29″N 4°41′09″W / 55.60806°N 4.68583°W / 55.60806; -4.68583


The hull of City of Adelaide at the Scottish Maritime Museum
in Irvine as of August 2007 (cropped)
Career (
United Kingdom)		 Royal Navy Ensign
Class and type: Clipper
Builder: William Pile, Hay, and Company of Sunderland
Launched: 1864
Christened: 1864
In service: 1864
Out of service: 1893
Renamed: HMS Carrick, SV Carrick
Homeport: Greenock
General characteristics
Displacement: 791 tons
Tons burthen: 1500 tons
Length: 74.4m
Beam: 9.81m

City of Adelaide, later known as HMS Carrick, and then SV Carrick, is the oldest surviving clipper ship in the world, and one of only a few to exist. Like the Cutty Sark and the Ambassador (built 1869 in Rotherhithe but now a wreck on San Gregorio beach North of Punta Arenas in Chile) she is of composite construction with timber planking on a wrought iron frame; the method provides the structural strength of an iron ship combined with the insulation of a timber hull. Composite ships were built for a relatively short period from circa 1860 to 1880; they were some of the fastest ships afloat as unlike iron ships they could have their bottoms coppered to prevent fouling while their iron frames enabled them to carry large rigs. Unfortunately they were not built for longevity and the combinationof timber planks fixed to iron frames, usually with bronze bolts, resulted in accelerated corrosion of the iron.

Although listed by the National Historic Fleet, Core Collection of the United Kingdom, as of 2006 she is a hulk in the possession of the Scottish Maritime Museum, and is presently planned to be demolished.[1] Presently it appears that four parties have an interest in adopting the City of Adelaide:

Contents

[edit] History: sailing days

She was built by William Pile, Hay, and Company of Sunderland, and launched in 1864.[2] A composite hull vessel like the Cutty Sark built several years later, City of Adelaide was designed to carry both passengers and cargo between England and Australia. She included first-class and second-class passenger quarters, and the hold could be filled with emigrants if desired.

The ship spent many years making annual runs to and from South Australia, playing an important role in the development of the colony; researchers have estimated that a quarter of a million South Australians can trace their origins to passengers on City of Adelaide.[3] On 24 August 1874 she was stranded on Kirkcaldy Beach near Grange, six miles south of the Semaphore opposite Adelaide. Refloated on 4 September after some of the cargo had been discharged. In 1887 the aged ship was sold for use in bulk cargo transport, first carrying coal from Tyne to Dover, and then carrying timber in the North Atlantic trade.

Her sailing days ended in 1893, when she was bought to serve as a floating hospital in Southampton.

[edit] History: afloat

From 1923 she was brought into the Royal Navy. As there was already an Adelaide in the RN she was named HMS Carrick and used as a Royal Naval Reserve drill ship at Greenock. Eventually the Admiralty presented her to the R.N.V.R. Club of Scotland, and she was moved to Glasgow in 1956, she was used by the local RNVR club.

By the mid-1980s the Club realised that they could not afford to maintain their floating clubrooms. They commenced seeking ways of securing her future and passing on ownership, and contacted various bodies with potential interest including the, then, recently established Scottish Maritime Museum.

In 1989 there proved to be some need for haste, when the ship was flooded. The Club, in some desperation, took the option on their insurance of having the vessel declared a total loss. To facilitate the preservation of the ship itself, Glasgow District Council applied for Listed Building status. Historic Scotland agreed to take the unusual step of listing a historic vessel as Category A – normally only applied to historic buildings. Listing was viewed as a boost to the preservation project.

By 1990 a new body, the Clyde Ship Trust, had been formed and, in March of that year, had purchased the vessel. The Scottish Maritime Museum was not party to this new body. Under the control of the new Trust the vessel was dismasted and prepared for removal and in August, 1990, was successfully towed downstream to Princes Dock.

Early in 1991, for reasons that have not been clearly identified, the vessel sank at her moorings. The Clyde Ship Trust was placed in a position of embarrassment, for, being already in debt, they were unable to put forward the funds required for a major salvage operation. It became necessary for other organisations to step in to attempt to prevent the total loss of the ship.

In 1992, she was identified as part of the UK National Historic Ships Core Collection.[4] At that time, she was the only 19th century sailing ship that was still capable of floating in the United Kingdom.

[edit] History: salvage

The Scottish Maritime Museum salvaged the remains and moved them to Irvine, North Ayrshire, with the expectation to preserve them and eventually restore the vessel.

In September 1993 the City of Adelaide was slipped on a slipway near the Scottish Maritime Museum. From then a programme of work was planned and operated on two fronts. The first was the preservation and restoration. The second was to allow public access and good quality interpretation.

In the late 1990s, Scotland obtained its own parliament. A side effect of this is that previous UK funding sources for the Scottish Maritime Museum dried up.[5] This then had a snowball effect on the Scottish Maritime Museum. An application for funding for the Museum’s other major project, under the UK Heritage Lottery Fund, was rejected. Due to the eroded revenue position, the local municipality then reduced its funding, and then other grant aiding organisations adopted a similar position.

In 1999, all work on the City of Adelaide stopped and the shipwrights were moved to other projects. In September, the Museum's trustees received a report that looked at the current structure and funding of the museum. The study recommended that, if the Trust failed to raise sufficient funds, the vessel should be offered for sale to other organisations with access to the resources to fund the restoration. Should that fail then the Trust should apply to demolish the structure.

In May 2000, the trustees of the Scottish Maritime Museum applied to North Ayrshire Council for consent to demolish the "Listed Building" City of Adelaide. The Council subsequently received over 100 objections to the Museum's application to demolish the vessel. For the first time the Authority received objections from other countries. There were representations from nine significant worldwide organisations who are involved in the history and preservation of ships. Many Members of the UK and Scottish Parliament’s objected as well as the Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Senator Robert Hill (Australian diplomat).[6]

The North Ayrshire Council refused demolition in February 2001. The Scottish Maritime Museum was left in a dire financial predicament with rental for the slipway beginning to accrue.

[edit] History: Duke of Edinburgh conference

A conference was convened in Glasgow as a result of an initiative from HRH The Duke of Edinburgh on 19 September 2001. The conference reached a number of important conclusions.[7]

Carrick - City of Adelaide is one of the most important historic vessels in the UK and every effort should be made to ensure the future of the vessel. Resources available in Scotland to preserve the vessel at the Scottish Maritime Museum were insufficient to make any real progress and the Museum's stewardship of the vessel could result in the whole of the museum's collections being placed in jeopardy.

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh proposed that the Maritime Trust and Scottish Maritime Museum should work in partnership to fund a first phase of work. This phase would see the vessel removed from the slipway, on which the initial work had been completed, and placed on a barge or similar vessel and her transhipment to another location. The Maritime Trust would take the lead in raising the funding support for the first phase.

The Sunderland Maritime Trust and Save the City of Adelaide 1864 Group, Adelaide, South Australia, both presented the conference with proposals for the vessel to be restored and displayed. The conference agreed that both organisations should now look to securing funding support for their proposals and an active dialogue would be maintained by all concerned. The aim of the Maritime Trust and the Scottish Maritime Museum would be that final transfer to either the Sunderland Maritime Trust or the Save the City of Adelaide 1864 Group would take place as quickly as possible. The Maritime Trust and the Scottish Maritime Museum would work in partnership to ensure this outcome.

The final decision of the conference was that as the significance of the vessel lay in her activities under the name City of Adelaide she should in future be known simply as City of Adelaide.

The conference was chaired by Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Julian Oswald, and in addition to HRH The Duke of Edinburgh was attended by representatives of High Commission of Australia in London, Save the City of Adelaide 1864 Group, City of Sunderland Council, Cutty Sark Trust, DCMS, Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic Scotland, North Ayrshire Council, National Historic Ships Committee, Scottish Executive, Scottish Maritime Museum, Government of South Australia, and Sunderland Maritime Heritage.

[edit] History: post-conference

No funds materialised until 2003 when businessman Mike Edwards donated funds for preservation and a feasibility study for the ship's restoration as a tourist adventure sailing ship for Travelsphere Limited. In February 2006 the results of the feasbility studies identified that the cost to comply with current maritime passenger safety regulations for sea-going vessels would be more expensive than building a replica. The studies concluded that it would be more cost-effective to turn the City of Adelaide into a static exhibit. Mike Edwards was disappointed but decided not to take up his original option of acquiring the City of Adelaide but his charitable efforts had extended a life-line to the City of Adelaide that ultimately gave her another three years of reprieve as well as a protective cover to protect her from the elements.

After three years the Scottish Maritime Museum was back in its original predicament. This predicament was worsened as the volunteer organisations that had previously been campaigning to acquire the City of Adelaide had now been put in hiatus for three years. The Scottish Maritime Museum applied again to North Ayrshire Council to demolish the ship at an estimated cost of £650,000.[8]

The hull of SV Carrick at the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine. August 2007.

When the proposal was gazetted by the council, some 132 letters of objection were received. Some of these came from maritime-related organisations who are involved in the history and preservation of ships as well as:[9]

On World Heritage Day, 18 April 2007, the North Ayrshire Council advised that they agreed to the deconstruction of the clipper subject to:

  • Referral of the application to Historic Scotland under Section 12 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997, and
  • A plan for demolition be developed by a Steering Committee based on the recommendations of National Historic Ships Committee (NHSC) and be agreed in writing by North Ayrshire Council as Planning Authority and by Historic Scotland.[10]

The proposals for demolition were due to be discussed at the end of May 2007, but postponed due to the fire on the Cutty Sark.[11]

In February 2008 Sunderland City of Adelaide Recovery Foundation (SCARF) announced that the National Historic Ships had agreed[citation needed] to fund a feasibiliy study into other options than demolition.

The SCARF group plans to initially keep the City of Adelaide in storage on private land in the city whilst working on plans to develop a Maritime Museum around a restored City of Adelaide.[12]

The South Australian organisation Clipper Ship 'City of Adelaide' Ltd.[13] is also working to secure the future of the City of Adelaide. They plan to return the City of Adelaide to Port Adelaide in South Australia in time for the state's 175th Jubilee in 2011 and display her with the local ships Falie and Nelcebee. The Nelcebee is an 1883 tug lighter which used to assist the City of Adelaide in and out of Port Augusta harbour in the 1880s when the clipper used to call there to collect wool and copper to carry to the London markets. One of the City of Adelaide quarter-owners was Henry Martin who was the working proprietor of the Blinman copper mines in the Flinders Ranges.

In March 2009, a British e-petition[14] asking the British Prime Minister to intervene to save the City of Adelaide was created on the Number 10 Downing Street website.

An Australian e-petition[15] to the Australian Senate to save the City of Adelaide is to be featured as one of twenty examples of Australian petitions from the 19th century to modern day in a new permanent gallery at Old Parliament House, Canberra. The gallery Living Democracy: The Power of the People will form part of the new Museum of Australian Democracy[16] (opening date May 2009).

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ BBC NEWS | England | Wear | No hope for clipper's homecoming
  2. ^ City of Adelaide website - 1864 Conception
  3. ^ City of Adelaide website - 1/4 Million Descendants
  4. ^ National Historic Ships - City of Adelaide
  5. ^ City of Adelaide website - 1992-2001 Scottish Maritime Museum
  6. ^ North Ayrshire Council - Demolition of clipper ship 'Carrick' - City of Adelaide
  7. ^ City of Adelaide website - 2001 Conference
  8. ^ North Ayrshire Council - Deconstruction of clipper ship 'Carrick - City of Adelaide'
  9. ^ North Ayshire Council - Representees list
  10. ^ North Ayshire Council - Recommendation and Conditions
  11. ^ BBC Scotland news story 21 May 2007
  12. ^ SCARF
  13. ^ Clipper Ship 'City of Adelaide' Ltd
  14. ^ British e-petition
  15. ^ Australian e-petition
  16. ^ Museum of Australian Democracy

[edit] External links


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