Migration Help
15th December 2009, 07:16 PM
Final pleas as deadline looms on the City of Adelaide's fate
By: Gavin Lower
From: The Australian (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/final-pleas-as-deadline-looms-on-migrant-ships-fate/story-e6frg6nf-1225810372536)
Date: December 15, 2009
http://resources2.news.com.au/images/2009/12/15/1225810/452414-the-city-of-adelaide.jpg
The City of Adelaide sailing ship dry docked at the port of Irving, south-west of Glasgow.
CARRYING the hopes and dreams of hundreds of migrants to a new life in colonial South Australia, the City of Adelaide faithfully bore her precious cargoes half way around the world.
Almost 150 years later, the graceful clipper, once the pinnacle of sailing design, lies derelict on a Scottish slipway with the question of her future due to be considered in Britain overnight. Her supporters hope to save the ship from destruction, arguing her heritage as the world's oldest composite clipper and colonial link to Australia are too important to lose.
A group of Australian enthusiasts want to bring the City of Adelaide back to the South Australian capital and make her a centrepiece of the city's historic Port Adelaide maritime precinct in time for the state's 175th birthday in 2011.
Their cause has drawn the support of high-profile Australians including former prime minister Bob Hawke and businessman and sailor James Hardy, who signed an open letter to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the "people of the United Kingdom" urging them to stop the ship, built in 1864, from being destroyed.
For Richard Smith, a director of Clipper Ship City of Adelaide Ltd, the ship played a significant role in Australia's development; about 240,000 people have forebears who arrived on the vessel. "When they're gone, they're gone forever," Mr Smith said of the ships that once dominated the oceans.
If the ship is saved, the descendants of the migrants the City of Adelaide carried would have a connection with their pasts they could visit, he said.
The Scottish Maritime Museum owns the City of Adelaide and has been ordered by the slipway's owner to move the ship by March 31 so it can redevelop the land. The museum says there is no money to put the ship anywhere else and is planning to break her up. A meeting last night was to determine what will happen to her.
An English group is also seeking to save the ship, with a group wanting to move her to Sunderland, where she was built. "She's in fantastic condition. It's a crime to destroy her," a spokesman said.
MH
By: Gavin Lower
From: The Australian (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/final-pleas-as-deadline-looms-on-migrant-ships-fate/story-e6frg6nf-1225810372536)
Date: December 15, 2009
http://resources2.news.com.au/images/2009/12/15/1225810/452414-the-city-of-adelaide.jpg
The City of Adelaide sailing ship dry docked at the port of Irving, south-west of Glasgow.
CARRYING the hopes and dreams of hundreds of migrants to a new life in colonial South Australia, the City of Adelaide faithfully bore her precious cargoes half way around the world.
Almost 150 years later, the graceful clipper, once the pinnacle of sailing design, lies derelict on a Scottish slipway with the question of her future due to be considered in Britain overnight. Her supporters hope to save the ship from destruction, arguing her heritage as the world's oldest composite clipper and colonial link to Australia are too important to lose.
A group of Australian enthusiasts want to bring the City of Adelaide back to the South Australian capital and make her a centrepiece of the city's historic Port Adelaide maritime precinct in time for the state's 175th birthday in 2011.
Their cause has drawn the support of high-profile Australians including former prime minister Bob Hawke and businessman and sailor James Hardy, who signed an open letter to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the "people of the United Kingdom" urging them to stop the ship, built in 1864, from being destroyed.
For Richard Smith, a director of Clipper Ship City of Adelaide Ltd, the ship played a significant role in Australia's development; about 240,000 people have forebears who arrived on the vessel. "When they're gone, they're gone forever," Mr Smith said of the ships that once dominated the oceans.
If the ship is saved, the descendants of the migrants the City of Adelaide carried would have a connection with their pasts they could visit, he said.
The Scottish Maritime Museum owns the City of Adelaide and has been ordered by the slipway's owner to move the ship by March 31 so it can redevelop the land. The museum says there is no money to put the ship anywhere else and is planning to break her up. A meeting last night was to determine what will happen to her.
An English group is also seeking to save the ship, with a group wanting to move her to Sunderland, where she was built. "She's in fantastic condition. It's a crime to destroy her," a spokesman said.
MH