Press letter: Let's bring the City of Adelaide home

I WAS lucky enough to be present at a heaving paddywacks pub in Sunderland city centre to witness the lauch of the City of Adelaide campaign song and a thoroughly enjoyable and memorable night it was.

The emotional Adelaide song was performed superbly by local musicans Paul Jackson and Pete Dodds and an excellent backing band which was being filmed as part of a BBC documentary on the Adelaide.

Talking to Paul Jackson a co-writer of the Adelaide song, I was able to gain an insight into the man's passion for the Adelaide campaign and this passion was was shared by the entusiastic gathering of proud Wearsiders at the special event.

It was interesting looking around the audience and seeing such a cross-section of the Wearside community united as one and together in such a hugely worthwhile cause for Sunderland. A cause, if successful, could help today's families and their children experience the pride of Sunderland's rich shipbuilding history.

To my knowledge there was no local politicans present at this important event other than the staunch passionate Adelaide campaigner Councillor Peter Maddison, and here lies the crux of the matter.

In the main, Sunderland City Council have been very quiet in relation to the Adelaide issue. The silence from the Civic Centre has been deafening about this masively important local debate.

The Australians are also interested in the Adelaide and their local politicans have supported their bid, eg. two local mayors have spoken out in favour of their Adelaide iniative.

If the Sunderland City of Adelaide Recovery Foundation (Scarf) campaign does not achieve its ultimate aim in bringing the Adelaide home to the river Wear then certain Sunderalnd councillors should hold their heads in shame. Let's bring our beauty home despite council indifference.

Tony Ratton, Sunderland

Press letter: Help us bring City of Adelaide back home

I FOUND an old photograph of me steering the Anna Kristina up the coast of Norway to the Lofoten Islands and beyond. Happy days!

I'm looking forward to "steering" the City of Adelaide around Cape Wrath and back home to Sunderland.

March the 31st, break up or recovery day is looming.

Scarf is frantically working on completing our recovery/business/sustainability plan to present to the Scottish Government and to others. We all need deadlines to work to or nothing gets done. But we wouldn't mind some help.

If you have a business or an engineering or a creative head please get in touch with me.

The greatest shipbuilding town in the world has got an opportunity to recover one of its own. The Adelaide will bring great pride and meaning back to an empty river.

The Adelaide will create hundreds of training and apprenticeship and business opportunities.

We don't need a great deal of money to recover the ship. We do need to be able to prove that we have the support of the city.

The future of the ship must be sustainable. We have to prove that the ship will be in safe and capable hands when she is back here.

If you have some fire in your belly and love for your home town, please contact me. Let's bring Adelaide home together and prove to the world that we are still capable of doing great things.

Coun Peter Maddison

email: Cllr.peter.maddison@sunderland.gov.uk

Press letter: I'm proud and sad

AFTER reading in the Echo recently and seeing the City of Adelaide song on You Tube it made me both proud to be from Sunderland and disappointed.

As a former shipyard worker, the whole Adelaide idea, to me, is a genuine effort by people with a love of Sunderland, campaigning for the city that they love and support with passion.

On the other hand, the sad lack of support from the majority of those in the comfortable set-up that is Sunderland Civic Centre is a complete disgrace, likewise with the city's MPs and candidates for the forthcoming election.

I have made a pledge to the Adelaide campaign and intend to buy several copies of the Adelaide song CD, some of which I will send to exiled Sunderland shipyard workers who also care passionately about Sunderland's City of Adelaide ship.

Ken Thompson, Sunderland

"...If only there was a way to shake the apathy out of people..."

Dear Sir, first off can i just say that never have I felt the need to put pen to paper (not literally in this case) about any subject, hence this letter may not make much sense. As I have no family ties to shipbuilding, or any connections to shipbuilding for that matter, its not a shipbuilding reason for wanting to see Adelaide back home, although thats a very worthy cause on its own. For me its about the City where im from and all things Sunderland.

If only some more of our elected representatives had the vision and fight that you seem to possess. Or if it belonged to that City which thinks and acts like a City should, you know the one, its not far from where we are and begins with an `N`. Im sure the Adelaide would have been home and sitting proudly on its Quayside.

Why or how cant they see what a great addition this would be to our port, it really does beggar belief that nothing seems to be being done to get her home, surely they can see the potential growth in investment just through tourism alone. How great would it look sitting opposite maybe the Glass Centre.

I could really go on forever about the Council's lack of support, but I
dont want to spoil my day.

Can I just say thanks and all the best in your endeavours, and you have my full support and im sure the majority of Sunderland would echo that. If only there was a way to shake the apathy out of people, that includes me. It has taken me this long to show my support, having read
the numerous letters in `the echo` and complained about nothing being done, which my wife is sick of hearing by the way.

Many thanks for your superb efforts and heres to your success.

Mr.William Young

"Nil Desperandum shipmates..."

According to Chris Mullin MP there is only 20% of the ship left intact. Other MPs, MEPs are no better informed; or they chose not to be informed. I’ve been pursuing the ship for more than ten years now. In the early days I believed once our elected members were informed of the true condition of the ship and her massive importance to Sunderland, they would leap at the chance to help. They didn’t and they won’t. I do not despair at their lack of involvement. They will have their arses kicked soon enough.

The recovery of the Adelaide is down to people like you and I and the rest of the town. In spite of all the obstacles and lack of assistance from Council we can pull it off. We have the town behind us. Our campaign has now got national as well as international attention. I know the media can be a double edged sword but at the moment they are full behind us:

We are a nation of shipbuilders and seafarers not a nation of landlubbers; they love a great David and Goliath story.

I’m in talks now with three separate film companies who want the job, and the exclusivity, of filming the recovery.

NIL DESPERANDUM shipmates...

Everyday now more and more people are coming onboard. We’ve now got a great campaign song. The CD will be available soon. The City of Adelaide song is going to be heard in all the bars and clubs of Sunderland, and sadly for the Australians, in Adelaide too. The ship is coming home to the Wear and not to South Australia. SCARF is not going to let anybody down. We are working day and night to complete our business/recovery/sustainability plan to present to the Scottish government and others.

We are never going to give up the fight to recover the ship for Sunderland. We do need all the help we can get.

Thank you again to you and your friends for supporting the great cause to recover the clipper.

Daughter Adelaide and dad in front of the Red Duster...

Daughter Adelaide and dad in front of the Red Duster. A great night in Sunderland on the occasion of the first live performance of our campaign song ‘City of Adelaide’. Many thanks to singer, songwriters Pete Dodds and Paul Jackson and all supporting musicians. Thanks also to Tony Griffiths and the management of Paddy Whacks Pub. We are going to be performing this song on the deck of the Adelaide when we bring her home to the River Wear!

CD’s of the song will be available soon. Please be patient.

Press letter: Adelaide rescue bid

THE campaign to bring the historic City of Adelaide clipper ship home to Wearside has now reached a critical stage.

As part of the campaign, a song by Sunderland musicians Paul Jackson and Pete Dodds, called City of Adelaide, was launched in a Sunderland city centre pub and I had the pleasure of being there. The night was a resounding success.

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