"... she is the base from which a story can be told"

Comment to 'Adelaide Now' 11th March 2010

I have been a keen supporter of the Clipper City of Adelaide for forty years now. I knew men who were seamen in the days of sail and qualified Cape Horner’s who had held their meetings aboard her when she was the Carrick. Indeed after Bob Alan and John Murchie passed on, I still knew men who met when she was the RNR meeting place and Campbell Mackenzie a member of our Cape Horner organisation is but one of them. For these and for the descendants of all the intrepid Emigrants who sailed in her it is so important she is saved, she is the base from which a story can be told. Whether she is in Scotland, Sunderland or Adelaide is less important than the issue of saving the ship intact for future generations. The Cutty Sark 1869 is in pretty dire straights her frame is weaker than that of the City of Adelaide, I do not doubt however that she will be rebuilt successfully. The Ambassador 1869 at San Gregorio Chile is effectively abandoned as is the Darra 1865 Quail Island New Zealand. This grand old lady older than them all should be brought back from the brink an icon of an industrial age now gone for ever.

Chris Roche