You are looking at the older of the world’s two surviving examples of their particular, “elite” type of sailing ship.
The younger one is the Cutty Sark.
The City of Adelaide was launched five years earlier, in 1864, in Sunderland.
It was custom-built to transport passengers and cargo to and from South Australia.
For its first 23 years of service, City of Adelaide sailed to and from Adelaide, annually.
An amazing “fact”: almost quarter of a million Australians can trace their heritage to passengers and crew of the City of Adelaide.
At least as amazing is the late 20th/ early 21st century saga of how Scotland “lost” this heritage-listed ship, and South Australia managed to “nab” it.
The Cutty Sark and the City of Adelaide are composite clipper ships.
Clippers were built for speed.
Composite clippers were the zippiest, and most capacious of the “extreme clippers”.
This was thanks to their hulls’ “best of both worlds” construction – iron frames, with timber cladding.
The next post will show you what the timber cladding looks like, now.
It will also reveal a little of the extraordinary chain of events which led to the ship’s final, one-way trip, which is still not quite concluded; however, the “by sea” component ended when City of Adelaide reached Port Adelaide in February 2014.
The ship’s restored coat of arms was unveiled in October 2017; it is clearly visible in today’s featured image, which shows the stern on 07 March 2024.
(photo ©️ Doug Spencer)
In 2024 much still remains to be done.
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