The plan today is to head to Port Adelaide to take a dolphin cruise. Port Adelaide is the historic maritime heart of South Australia and home to some of the finest historic buildings in the State.

Established in 1840 only four years after the foundation of the State, it played an integral role in the colonial development of South Australia . The first migrants however had to wade through the mud of nearby “Port Misery”, a daunting start to a new life in a new colony. By 1870’s wharves were built, solid stone warehouses and homes were erected and signs of Port Adelaide’s prosperity were evident. The Port has been host to many sailing ships of yesteryear, steamships and now large container and cruise ships, but still retains many of it’s 19^th Century buildings.

Yet again we got a bit lost but our friendly satnav put us right and we arrived safely. Once in town we luckily found a car park very close to the dock and it was FREE, even better. From the car park we could see the City of Adelaide which is currently being restored by a group of
enthusiasts along with the help of many sponsors. The City of Adelaide (a splendid Clipper
Ship) was built in 1864 and is the world’s oldest composite clipper ship with a wooden hull on an iron frames. It was a purpose built to carry both passengers and cargo to and from Adelaide and was named after the city, and is the only surviving sailing ship to have given regular service between the United Kingdom and South Australia undertaking 23 return voyages . The only other surviving composite clipper in the world is The Cutty Sark. Specifically a passenger ship designed to carry immigrants and today almost a quarter of a million Australians can trace their heritage to passengers and crew of this ship.

The volunteers have a 10 year plan to restore the ship and have many sponsors willing to help but the government has reneged on it’s promise of a permanent home for the ship and now they have been given 8 months to move the ship somewhere as the land is needed to build luxury apartments. Where have we heard this before. I hope a solution can be found soon.

After chatting with one of the volunteers we headed off for the wharf and our Dolphin Cruise which was leaving at 11.30am but we hope to be back in time for the 2pm guided tour of the ship.

Luckily the Dolphin Cruise leaves from the dock just a few minutes away, it’s another overcast start to the day with the temperature forecast to be only 24 to 26 degrees, much cooler . Got there in time for a quick coffee before boarding and finding some seats on the top deck. Once on board we were soon heading out, and one of the crew was giving a commentary but we couldn’t hear a word thanks to the noisy group of Japanese or Chinese tourist who sat right behind us, in the end we moved and soon it was time for our lunch and we went down to the restaurant. After lunch we were lucky enough to see a number of dolphin, well the fins at least but it was a very enjoyable morning.

We were back in Port Adelaide by 1.30pm so had plenty of time to go back to the City of Adelaide for the 2pm tour and how interesting it was. Two of the volunteers on duty today were decedents of the first Captain David Bruce (form Scotland), who was followed by 2 of his sons. Construction of the ship itself started on 1^st October 1863 and she was launched on 7^th May 1864 and completed on 31^st May 1864 and registered on 18^th July 1874 amazing considering the size of it. The first class passengers even had rooms with en-suite facilities including a real bath (shared with the Captain) on the upper deck . They even had a desalination still on board which could have caused a disaster when one of the sails got wrapped around the pipe and caught light, thankfully it was not too serious and it continued on to Adelaide.

By 1880’s clipper ships were being replaced by larger and faster steam ships, in February 1887 on her return to London the 23 year old City of Adelaide was sold to Dover coal merchant Charles H Mowll and was used to ship Coal and Timber from 1887 to 1893. In the early 1890’s outbreaks of smallpox, typhoid and scarlet fever broke out in Southampton UK and extra
facilities were needed and the ship was turned into a hospital ship from 1893 to 1923.

Next she left Southampton and was towed to Irvine in Scotland and was converted for use as a navy training ship and as there was already a ship called HMS Adelaide her name was changed to HMS Carrick. After the war she was no longer needed and was scheduled to be broken up . Fate intervened and it was saved by the admiralty who turned her into the
Royal Naval Reserve Club (Scotland) and was used as a floating clubhouse from 1948 to 1990. She was then bought by Clyde Ship Trust but after she sank in February 1991 they were unable to provide the funds to salvage her. The Scottish Maritime Museum tried to rescue the ship with the intension of preserving it, they did refloat it and she was transferred to Irvine. In 1993 restoration began and went well until 1999 when Scotland got it’s own parliament and funding ended. The ship then laid untouched until 20^th September 2013 when she left the Irvine River aboard on route to Chatham Docks arriving on 25^th from here she was towed to Greenwich and moored near to her younger sister The Cutty Sark. On 18^th October the Duke of Edinburgh renamed her The City of Adelaide. On 24^th October 2013 she arrived in the Netherlands for fumigation as wood cannot be imported into Australia departing on 22^nd November on her final voyage to Adelaide arriving during our last trip on 3^rd February
2014, but unfortunately we were on route to Melbourne but saw it on TV.