Last October, we posted about the shipping cradle that had been fabricated in Australia and shipped to Scotland which will be used to transport the oldest composite clipper ship, the City of Adelaide, back to her namesake city in South Australia. The first two containers containing sections of the shipping cradle have now arrived in Irvine, Scotland. The last three containers, each carrying 15 to 20 tonnes of cradle parts, are due in late February. Once the cradle is reassembled under the ship, the 150-year-old clipper and cradle will be moved onto a barge for transfer onto an ocean-going ship for the voyage to Port Adelaide, Australia. The current target date is the end of March, if all goes well.
The City of Adelaide was built in 1864 by William Pile, Hay and Co. in Sunderland, England, and was launched on May 7, 1864. The ship was commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Carrick between 1923 and 1948 and, after decommissioning, was 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.