City of Adelaide at Chatham, UK

The oldest surviving clipper clipper ship, City of Adelaide, was towed on its barge to Chatham where she will be fumigated. In mid-October, the 1864 built composite clipper ship will be moved to Greenwich, near the just slightly younger composite clipper, Cutty Sark, where a renaming ceremony will be held on October 18, with the Duke of Edinburgh in attendance. While we and most others have referred to the ship by her original name, she was renamed HMS Carrick after she was taken over by the Royal Navy as a training ship in 1923. The renaming ceremony will officially return the original name to the ship before she is transported by a heavy lift ship back to her namesake city in Australia.

A short video of the City of Adelaide arriving in Chatham by Thamespics.

Comments

City of Adelaide at Chatham, UK — 7 Comments

  1. I’m confused, “City of Adelaide” is in Australia and they are going to tow it to Chatham, England?

  2. The composite clippers were remarkably stiff as compared to wooden ships. On the other hand, the ship was blocked on land in Scotland for two decades. If the ship was hogged in 1992, the period spent on land might have straightened her out a bit.

  3. Let’s really confuse Phil 🙂

    City of Adelaide was built in Sunderland, spent time ferrying migrants to Australia, spent her latter years as RNVR Carrick moored in Glasgow on the River Clyde (used as an events venue/restaurant when she was not sinking/sunk), was towed and stored on land in Irvine, Scotland, and has been towed to Chatham as the first leg of her trip to South Adelaide, Australia, by cargo ship.

    All this on the assumption that a certain madman from Sunderland does not hijack her en-route because he thinks the hull should lie there.

  4. This to Captain Peter Boucher MM Retired
    Dear Peter,
    Did you go to King Edward VII Nautical College or serve in BP Tankers,
    I’m sure I recognise your name from somewhere.
    Regards
    Captain David Bowley MM Retired
    PS I am trying to find out the name of the Heavy Lift ship which will transport the hull of the Clipper ship “City of Adelaide” to Australia…I believe it could be one of the Combi-Lift fleet using twin 450 tonne SWL cranes to lift the 550 tonne load including the 100 tonnes steel cradle.