Portal:Diaries/Intro

The Clipper Age brought the development of a highly skilled set of sailors and craftsmen, and great notoriety for both the ships and crews that sailed them. Clippers were designed for fast voyages and this resonated with the 19th Century’s fascination for speed. Today they still represent some of the fastest oceangoing sailing vessels in the world.

Clippers were instrumental in opening new trade routes. The Great Clipper Races, relating to the transport of Australian wool and Chinese tea to the London markets, are an enduring memory of the importance of the clippers. The only two remaining examples of this important era of clipper design are the ‘City of Adelaide’ (1864) and the ‘Cutty Sark’ (1869). That the ‘City of Adelaide’ and the ‘Cutty Sark’ have survived to this day is a testament to the designers and builders of these composite clippers.

The ‘City of Adelaide’ is also rather unique in that she was designed as a passenger ship – and now represents a vital icon of the making of modern Australia and of the relationship between Britain and the Australian colonies.

The ‘City of Adelaide’ travelled around the world on each of its return journeys carrying a wide range of passengers and cargo. The passengers on board included whole families travelling to South Australia to start a new life. They may have already had relatives in the State. There were businessmen returning to Britain or going back to Australia. Children were born during the voyage and illness overtook others and they were buried at sea.

Now a project is underway to move the ‘City of Adelaide’ from the Scottish slipway where it has stood for the past 20 years and transport her to Port Adelaide in South Australia - representing the world’s last ever voyage of a Victorian era clipper ship.

In a joint Scottish-Australian initiative, we can arrange for a letter or letters to travel on board the clipper and be delivered to an appropriate primary school in South Australia. Your school might want to provide information about your area today and how it was in 1864 when passengers first boarded the ‘City of Adelaide’, bound for South Australia.

If you wish to participate please contact us with an e-mail contact so that we can provide details of the deadline for the receipt of letters, the time-table for the sailing and progress reports during the journey. It might also be possible for some accompanied pupils to witness the departure of the ship from Scotland.