The Carrick is the world's oldest clipper and populated Adelaide and much of South Australia.
The Times July 31, 2006
Fight to save the ship that populated the City of Adelaide
By Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent
The city of Adelaide in the state of South Australia, Australia. Researchers have estimated that more than 60 per cent of the current population of the state of South Australia can trace their families’ arrival in Australia to that ship.
A PROPERTY developer has announced a last-minute attempt to save the world’s oldest clipper from demolition, but says that his plans are likely to be sunk by government bureaucracy.
Tim Roper is trying to prevent The Carrick being broken up, despite its international importance. The vessel survived stormy seas on 28 voyages between Britain and Australia over 20 years from the 1860s, but its owner, the Scottish Maritime Museum, cannot afford the millions of pounds needed to preserve the ship and has applied for permission to have her scrapped rather than watch her rot.
Mr Roper’s ambitious proposals to rescue her involve transporting her to Cornwall and restoring her as a tourist attraction. She is currently moored in Irvine, Ayrshire.
He has the museum’s blessing, but his plans are destined for failure because the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will not make a decision on whether the vessel will then have listed status. If listed, he cannot restore it as a tourist attraction, a floating hotel or restaurant and art gallery, on the River Fal, where there is deep enough mooring.
The Carrick, the only wooden sailing passenger ship from the 19th century to have survived in Britain, was one of the main vessels that travelled to Australia. Australian researchers have estimated that more than 60 per cent of the current population of the state of South Australia can trace their families’ arrival in Australia to that ship.
The Carrick and the Cutty Sark (which is in London) are the only surviving clipper ships in the world. Built in 1864, Carrick predates the Sark by five years.
Adelaide is in South Australia
But time is short: £15 million is needed to restore the ship to her former glory as the luxurious vessel of her day. Her mooring alone costs the museum £45,000 a year, but moving her to dry land would require hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Built in Sunderland for the London to Adelaide passenger and wood trade, the 176ft (53.6m) Carrick was originally called the City of Adelaide. She achieved a record journey time of 65 days, had 14 first-class cabins and carried 270 second-class travellers. By 1887, however, she was no longer considered economical to run and her sailing days ended in 1893.
Placed among the nation’s Top 10 historic vessels, alongside HMS Victory and the Cutty Sark, she became the only ship in Scotland given listed-building status. But the museum is now seeking to have that status lifted so that it can be allowed to dispose of her.
Sam Galbraith, chairman of the museum, said that “the old lady” could then be consigned to maritime history with dignity. “That must be infinitely better than watching her rotting on a slipway.”
The museum has been so impressed with Mr Roper’s plans that it has agreed to sell him the vessel for £1, knowing that he will invest millions more in her survival.
Mr Roper said: “If I were to rescue the ship and bring her to Cornwall, and then adapt her it would represent a massive speculative investment on my behalf. If she were subsequently listed, I could be forced to undo all my restoration and adaption work.”
But Chris Smith, of the architecture and historic environment division at the DCMS, in a letter to Mr Roper, stated: “Until we know the precise details of the new arrangements under which the ship would be docked in England, it is not possible to express a view as to whether the ship would be considered to be a building.”
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