Cradle to take the Carrick back home
John Kinsman
The historic clipper ship, Carrick, has been lying on a slip in Irvine for many years, and it was until recently feared that she would have to be ‘deconstructed’ – in other words, broken up. However, the fire that destroyed London’s Cutty Sark underlined the fact that the Carrick (or City of Adelaide, as she was originally called) is the last remaining clipper of her kind. Fresh interest came from Australia, where she was built, and now she is to be taken on the long sea voyage to her home port of Adelaide. As she is no more than a hulk, though still with the beautiful lines that made clippers so fast and exciting, she cannot be floated on her own – but her new owners are not daunted by that.
The Australians are building a vast steel cradle to carry the old ship half way round the world. It will weight 100 tonnes and it is being constructed over multiple sites across South Australia, with the ultimate aim of shipping it to Glasgow in huge containers. The sections will then be assembled underneath the historic Carrick, and once the clipper is safely cradled, the whole assembly will be rolled onto an immense barge. This in turn will be towed to a deep-water port where it will be taken aboard a big ship for the trip to Port Adelaide.
More than 15 engineering companies around Adelaide and South Australia have volunteered to share the work of making the component parts for the cradle. The project was launched with a ceremony at the premises of Samaras Structural Engineers, one of the firms donating both labour and materials, and two ladies who had close connections to the clipper cracked a champagne bottle over the beginnings of the cradle that will bring the old ship home. One of them was Pam Wittle, the great-granddaughter of the Carrick‘s first captain, David Bruce, and the other was Marion Wells, the great-granddaughter of Matilda Methuen, who had been a passenger on the old clipper’s maiden voyage.
More funding will be needed before the dream of restoring the Carrick (or City of Adelaide, as she will again be known) to her original glory becomes a reality but Creagh O’Conner, Chairman of the City of Adelaide Preservation Trust, said he was pleased by the work done so far. He said, ‘We are encouraged by the support being given and we are very pleased with the ever increasing number of firms offering money or in-kind support. It’s wonderful to see competing engineering firms joining forces to help secure the City of Adelaide – it’s a wonderful good news story.’
