Latest news on the Carrick

from John Kinsman

The world’s oldest surviving clipper, HMS Carrick, is nearer to moving to a new home in Australia. The parts for a huge steel cradle have arrived at Irvine, in Ayrshire, so the old vessel can be carried safely to Adelaide. A 100-tonne steel cradle will be now constructed from these prefabricated sections. Once this is assembled and ready the hull will be jacked up to allow the cradle to slide underneath her.

Originally named the City of Adelaide, the clipper was built in 1864 by William Pile, Hay and Co. in Sunderland, England, and was launched on May 7th, 1864. The ship was commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Carrick between 1923 and 1948 and after decommissioning, continued to be known as Carrick until 2001. At a conference convened by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh in 2001, the ship’s name reverted to City of Adelaide. She is one of only three surviving sailing ships to have taken emigrants from the British Isles to any destination in the world. The other two are the Edwin Fox and the Star of India. The Cutty Sark, built in 1869, was a tea clipper, not designed as a passenger vessel.

As a fast sailing ship, the City of Adelaide made 23 annual return voyages between 1864 and 1887, transporting passengers and goods from London and Plymouth to Adelaide, South Australia. On the return voyages, the ship carried passengers, wool and copper from Adelaide and Port Augusta to London. Her remaining hull lay rotting for years on a slip-way in Irvine, and suggestions were made that it should be broken up. Protest began, and a strong plea came in from Sunderland for return of the old ship to the place where she was built – but a bid from Adelaide proved the winner, because of the significant historic connection linking the ship to the Australian city. It is hoped that the great old clipper will be starting her long voyage towards reconstruction and a new life very soon.

The legend to the picture below reads as follows:

Clipper Ship, ‘City of Adelaide’, 1000 tons, David Bruce, Commander. Hand-coloured lithograph by Thomas Dutton, August 1864. Dedicated “To Messrs. Devitt and Moore Owners, Messrs Wm Pile, Hay & Co. Builders & the Officers of the Ship this print is most respectfully dedicated by their obedient servant, Wm. Foster.

Amazing to look at the elegant lines of that hull and know it is the very same thing that lies just across the water from Arran, rotting on a slip-way in Irvine.