Clipper Ship City of Adelaide
The clipper ship City of Adelaide is a maritime museum in Port Adelaide, South Australia. It is the only remaining ship of an international fleet of 13 vessels that pioneered high-speed ocean travel, which soon became the fastest and most reliable way to transport passengers and cargo across oceans. City of Adelaide’s sailings were the first regular services connecting Australian cities with Britain and New Zealand.
The first clipper ship City of Adelaide was launched on 7th April 1840, she was built by John Mowlem & Sons of Sunderland, England with oak, elm and teakwood, she was 34.3m long, and weighed 1,222 tons. The City of Adelaide was the first ship to carry passengers to Australia, and she made the journey in 41 days.
The clipper City of Adelaide was decommissioned in 1860 after 73 voyages, and relocated to Port Adelaide in South Australia, where she was used as a storage facility. The City of Adelaide was towed to Victoria in 1866, where she was used again as a storage facility, until her hull finally rotted away in 1890. In 1912 the City of Adelaide was towed to Melbourne.
The 65-gun wooden clipper ship “City of Adelaide” was built in Sunderland, England, in 1864. She made twenty-five voyages to Adelaide, Australia, the last arriving in 1893. She was then sold to the Russians and renamed “Admiral Popov”. She eventually capsized and sank in a gale on June 2, 1905.
The clipper ship City of Adelaide was launched in October 1864. She was the largest ship built in the River Torrens at the time, and cost £30,000 to build. She was named after Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. She was the first ship to make the journey from England to Australia in under six months. The ship was wrecked off the coast of Cape Agulhas, South Africa in 1867.
The City of Adelaide was built in Sunderland, England in 1864 for the Genoa-based company, Lloyd Triestino, the Italian shipping company that still exists today. The Lloyd Triestino company was a major competitor in the Genoa to Australia route and was one of the “Four Sisters” which also included the SS Adriatic, the SS Africa and the SS Asia.
The City of Adelaide was a clipper ship that was used as a cargo ship in the 1860s and 1870s, then as an emigrant ship in the 1880s and later as ship’s hospital ship in WWI. In the mid-1990s, the ship was moved to Port Adelaide where it is currently used as a museum. The Clipper Ship City of Adelaide was owned by the Union Steamship Company and was captained by John Rae in the early 1900’s. The ship was known for being the fastest clipper ship in the world, traveling the distance from London to Adelaide in sixty-one days. It took thirty-eight days to travel from London to Melbourne and eighteen days to sail to Hobart. This ship caused a rivalry between Adelaide and Melbourne because the ship was faster than the steamships and was able to sail through the Great Australian Bight.
The Adelaide was built to carry passengers and cargo, and her design was based on the very successful British ship, Great Britain. The Adelaide was larger than the Great Britain and was the only ship of this type built in this country. She was built to carry emigrants to Australia and was used in this trade until 1852. Later she was used as a sealer and whaler, and she made a trip to the Arctic. In 1875 she was used as a coal hulk and was wrecked at her moorings in 1887.
Over the course of several decades, Melbourne, Australia-based Clipper Ship City of Adelaide built a dozen ships, all named after the city of Adelaide in South Australia. The company was founded by William Peacock in 1868, and the first Clipper Ship City of Adelaide was launched in 1886. The ship was built to carry passengers, cargo and mail, and it was designed to be able to travel in rough waters. The ship’s hull was made of wood and iron, and it was a combined sail and steam ship. Unfortunately, the vessel disappeared in 1916, so there are no surviving examples of the ship in existence today.
The City of Adelaide was built in 1864 for the British East India Company as a passenger ship to bring rich Europeans to the subcontinent. In 1867 she was sold to the Norwegian firm of Fredrik Henrik af Chapman and carried cargo and passengers between Norway and South Australia. By 1870 she was carrying miners and settlers from Europe to the goldfields of South Australia. In 1881 the ship was sold to the South Australian Government and used to start a regular service from Adelaide to the UK. During the First World War she carried troops to Europe and became a hospital ship at times. In her last years she carried British immigrants to Australia.
The City of Adelaide was the first ship built on the River Wear and was launched in 1864. She was a Sunderland-built clipper ship with a reputation for reliability, due to her fine-lined hull and her shallow draught, which enabled her to enter most harbours. During her career, she made numerous trips to India, China and Australia, and carried many thousands of sheep, cattle, horses and convicts. She is most famous for bringing the first fleet of Australian immigrants to South Australia in 1836.