S.S.City of Adelaide

[ChrisDoak]

Australian Camerons may be interested to hear of the imminent break up of the S.S.City of Adelaide,a 176 foot Clipper built in Sunderland,North-East England,in 1864.Reputedly the oldest survivor of it's type,the City of Adelaide,which traded between Britain and South Australia (including carrying many migrants),was latterly named H.M.S.Carrick.As a floating Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve Club,it sunk at it's moorings on the River Clyde in Scotland in 1990,and since then it has been beached at the Scottish Maritime Museum,where the ravages of being out of the water have taken their toll.

Estimates of £10m sterling have been made for her repair and restoration,and with no likeliehood of this sum being available,this grand old lady will shortly be broken up.Know of anybody in Adelaide with a fat wallet?

For more information,and photos,check out a number of websites by typing in "carrick city adelaide" on Google Search.

Chris Doak,Scotland.

[Cameronian]

Good morning Chris, sorry that I did not catch this when you posted it, we in Clan Cameron Australia have been having a Maritime revival, with our Clan historian Jennifer Roberts preparing for us a paper on the Canadian born Sir Roderick Cameron, his Australian connections and his years of ownership of the Clan Line vessels from 1887 - 1900.

Sir Roderick once owner of the ‘Clan line’ of shipping and past owner of one of the vessels we presently have in our Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour Sydney, the beautifully and accurately restored 1874 three-masted barque which when owned by Sir Roderick was then called the Clan MacLeod.

Sadly there was also a sister ship called the Clan Cameron, long since sent to scrap. These vessels sailing under Sir Roderick’s flag plied ports around the globe, from Canada to New Zealand, from Australia back up through India to Europe and we are looking forward to a later event when we can board the vessel (now called the James Craig) sail in her (if only briefly) and heartily sing the sea shanties along with the crew.

Finding the public funding to restore this vessel has been a long endeavour undertaken by our Maritime Museum, but now with the money subscribed and the use of expert voluntary labour the vessel is fully restored , the centre-piece of the Darling Harbour display and naturally, of much interest to us because of the Cameron connection.