Rudderly love for City of Adelaide clipper
It’s time to get “up close and personal” with the historic City Of Adelaide clipper ship.
The one-time migrant ship recently returned to Adelaide after years of campaigning by local enthusiasts to salvage the rotting hulk from a Scottish shipyard.
The journey of the City of Adelaide clipper ship spans 150 years throughout which it has provided passage to the settlers in South Australia, been used as a floating isolation hospital on the river Thames, seen Naval service and now has come to rest at its final home in Port Adelaide.
This Saturday, 17 May, there will be a community event at the Port to celebrate the 150th birthday.
Organisers expect to draw a crowd of more than 15,000 people and will be the first time the general public can get up close to the ship.
The immense public interest in the plight and history of this wooden vessel stems from today’s reality that hundreds of thousands of Australia’s current population descend from the original passengers.
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A direct physical link between the ship and Adelaide lies in the story of a broken rudder, the likely cause of which is a collision with a whale.
“The City of Adelaide had left Port Augusta with a full load and was travelling back to the UK in 1877,” Director of the Clipper Ship group, Peter Christopher said.
“When it was south of Kangaroo Island it lost its rudder.
“They came back to Port Adelaide by dragging chains over the sides to steer the ship.”
Once safely harboured in the Port River on Fletcher’s Slip they built a new rudder using local wood in 10 days and the ship was able to continue its journey.
“The rebuilt rudder still exists and is with the ship today,” Christopher said.
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In 2005, Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries scientists helped British archeologists confirm that the rudder, by that time damaged by the years and seawater, was indeed the one built in Adelaide in 1877. A key factor was their assessment that the rudder was made from Australian grey ironbark.
Jim Tildesley, Director of the Scottish Maritime Museum, has come over to represent Scotland at the event.
“I can’t go anywhere [in South Australia] without finding information about the key people in the setting up of the state or institutions within the state, exploration around the country, which can all be traced back to people arriving on this ship,” Tildesley said.
“So much is known about this ship, and its passengers, and its cargoes and its crew.
“It is an incredibly well-researched ship and you’re going to find interesting stories wherever you did.”
Though the ship could have been destroyed or left to further rot, the salvage opportunity was embraced and successfully concluded earlier this year.
“It wasn’t that the Scottish wanted to destroy it, it was because they believed they had no other solution,” the Scot said.
“Now that the ship’s actually here, it’s just seen an explosion of people who want to be involved.”
The event will include information sessions, speakers tents, music, food, and family-friendly entertainment including a ferris wheel to get a better look at the ship.
It will run at Dock One at Port Adelaide from 10am to 5pm.
