City of Adelaide clipper ship takes final sea voyage to Dock 2 in Port Adelaide
She first hit the seas more than 150 years ago, and this morning the City of Adelaide clipper ship took its final voyage by sea to a new home.
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She sailed the oceans blue for more than two decades and travelled more than half a million miles but today the City of Adelaide clipper ship has taken her final voyage by sea.
The world’s only surviving purpose-built passenger sailing ship has been moved from Dock One to Dock Two at Port Adelaide to become the centrepiece of the new Seaport Village.
In the early morning light, in front of a small crowd of wellwishers, two tugs towed and controlled the ship, sitting on a huge barge, as it moved through the open Port River bridges.
Traffic came to a standstill as the ship that made 23 return voyages from London and Plymouth to Adelaide in the mid-19th century moved through the open bridges on a slow journey of less than 1km.
Peter Christopher, director of the South Australian group that helped save the historic vessel and saw her transported from Scotland to Adelaide in February 2014, was dockside for the occasion.
“This is a very significant for all of us involved and for the state and the nation,” Mr Christopher said.
“The first stage was saving the vessel from being broken up.
“The second stage was getting it out to Australia and now the third is seeing her to a permanent home.”
More than 250,000 Australians can trace their descendants to someone who travelled as a passenger on the City of Adelaide during voyages from England taken from 1864 to 1887.
Mr Christopher, the former head of the Public Service Association, said the journey – short as it was – had world significance.
“This is the last time a 19th century clipper ship that dominated the waves for a time will ever move on water again,” he said.
“This ship is so significant to world maritime history, the history of Australia, the state and the city of Adelaide that it’ll all be worth the time and money.
“We can now finally say the ship has been saved forever.”
Mr Christopher said the ship would stay on its barge until 2021, when the Seaport Village would be completed around it as it sits in a dry dock.
The clipper originally had a 40m mast but will initially be fitted with three temporary masts of 20m each taken from the Port Canal Shopping Centre.
“Those masts are still impressive but it’ll take a few years to build masts of the original size and dimensions,” Mr Christopher said.
“That will be an expensive job but everything about this job has been.”
So far the project has cost well over $7 million, with more than $1 million being spent since the ship arrived at Port Adelaide five years ago.
More than $2 million was spent in Scotland where the ship was lying in a bog and then there was $1.5 million for the trip on the back of a ocean-going transporter.
Mr Christopher said the group was grateful to the State Government, which donated the land on which the village would be built and paid for the removal of asbestos from surrounding sheds.
“We appreciate their contribution but in practical terms this is a volunteer not-for-profit project with the vast majority of money raised by generous donations from business and the community,” he said.
“We have had tremendous support including from Harrold & Kite (Adelaide building firm) which have committed to building the replica first class cabins.
“We are still a work in progress to bring the ship back to her full glory but we’ll get there.”