Old Clipper for cutting up

[Dan_Houston]

Went on You and Yours this lunchtime, with Martin Heighton of National Historic Ships Unit and Jim Tildesley of the Scottish Maritime Museum to talk about City of Adelaide - the hulk of a clipper lying forlorn at Irvine,
near Ayr.
Two things struck. First was how nervous I was because it's years since I did anything regular on Radio - and it's live. And second was how good it was to have a broadcaster like the BBC take interest in our world of restoring old things that float.
Maybe those two things are related...
It's a late hour for Adelaide. A meeting next Tuesday will begin to decide how she can be broken up, with sections kept, maybe, for posterity.
The reason we were on, I guess, is because if the Cutty Sark had burnt to a cinder (an unlikely event I grant) then CofA would be sole example of her kind of ship in some kind of extant order.
In fact she's very original and probably in better condition than the James Craig was when a few enthusiasts from Sydney rescued her in the early 1970s.
Trouble is, she's in Irvine. Way off the beaten track and out of the way of young people who might want to get involved in a project like this and - perhaps more importantly - some of the older guys who still have the skills needed to fix her up. Skills that could be passed onto the next generation.
Having sailed Tall Ships myself I know how different they are from sailing a yacht and I think it's awful to see, in the space of two weeks, our two best examples of trade under sail in such a threatened condition.
There seem to be plenty of Royal Navy ships in good condition - HMS Victory, HMS Warrior, Trincomalee (Foudroyant), Discovery, Unicorn and Gannet. But they were basically for trade/empire protection and consequently paid for by the wealth-making workships like Cutty Sark, City of Adelaide and the thousands of their ilk.
Seems a shame to lose the one in Irvine. She badly needs a rescue package. And if you want to see how it can work, then check out the James Craig story www.australianheritagefleet.com.au
Any ideas? Anyone?
Dan Houston

You and yours listen again:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/mainframe...io4/youandyours

 

[Poignard]

[ QUOTE ]
Any ideas?

[/ QUOTE ]

To have any hope City of Adelaide must be somewhere where there are large numbers of tourists looking for interesting things to do. Most people who visit Cutty Sark are probably not sailing-ship enthusiasts, she is just another of London's attractions. But their admission fees pay for her upkeep.

I understand she is under threat because the museum associated with her is in financial trouble, so that link must be broken.

She ought to be shifted to somewhere like London, Chatham, Bristol or Liverpool, i.e. somewhere where there are tourists willing to pay to see her and craftsmen able to restore her.

If it is absolutely impossible to restore her now perhaps she can be carefully dismantled and stored for future generations, but in one location, not distributed around the world.

In view of the current public concern over the near loss of Cutty Sark perhaps now is the time to develop that concern for her into a wider appreciation of the importance of preserving our maritime heritage.

Good luck, anyway!

 

[JREdginton]

Move her to Milford Haven, Lowestoft, Lyme Regis or Falmouth and let the boat building students get their teeth into her over the next decade.

Not only keeping traditional crafts alive but also traditional craft. Maybe the lottery could be convinced to help out too, without havng to pay 3rd party project managers, directors and so on they could possibly save her and save some loot too.

Just dreaming /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[halcyon]

Sunderland coucil are looking into moving her back.

Brian

 

[JREdginton]

I hope they make it, would be very cool /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Seagreen]

[ QUOTE ]
Move her to ... Lyme Regis ... and let the boat building students get their teeth into her over the next decade.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm. Lyme Regis a bit lacking in slipways large enough... Good thought though. Last time I was in Pembroke Dock, the Charlotte Rhodes of Onedin Line fame was lying there slowly falling apart. Are there any more veteran merchant ships out there needing rescue?

 

[JREdginton]

[ QUOTE ]
Lyme Regis a bit lacking in slipways large enough

[/ QUOTE ]

Blast, always a small technical problem to overcome /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[ctelfer38]

Dan, you are in the best position to take a lead with your magazine. Why not run an editorial/feature raising the suggestion that the high spending sponsors of the singlehanded publicity seeking circumnavigators would reap more benefit by supporting a restoration fund and to spend their money to a better purpose by involving young craftsmen/women as well as preserving our maritime heritage.. Your readership would surely support you as would, I suspect, the readership of your sister journals. Might do your magazine circulation no harm either if your editorial is robust enough. Time to make waves? CBT /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[burgundyben]

Dan

Sadly I have enough on my plate....cough...

Do you not think its a bigger issue than that which is faced by City of Adelaide?

A worthy vessel desperately in need of help.

But to me the real issue is a lack of a National strategy for selection of vessels that should be conserved and the financial and logistical planning to carry it out.

Look at the state we let Gypsy Moth fall into before a rescue plan saved here?

Look at the MTB 331 owned by Hampshire County Council, no access to the Public.

Look at the Calshot Tug (no access to the public), look a the Supermarine Walrus (ok not entirely a boat, but in need of a great deal of funds to get it airworthy).

Who looks at all the remaining vessels and decides how best to divide the available funds to preserve the right cross section of our maritime heritage?

I think an area where the National Maritime Museum fails to support our maritime history.

Maybe your magazine, rather than raise a campaign to save one worthy cause should raise the question of who should coordinate the rescues of all the right craft?

 

[harbinda]

Dan,

There is now a campaign to save the 'City of Adelaide'. The supporters are based in Adelaide, South Australia, where the 'City of Adelaide' made 23 return trips, bringing out thousands of passengers and goods vital for the colony's survival and taking back export goods for the UK markets. The plan to save the ship is realistic and needs more promotion and support. Please visit the website www.cityofadelaideclipper.org for more details. As the group has just begun, there will be more information added to the website as they progress. Politicians and corporate supporters are being sought.

 

[cliffordpope]

"Who looks at all the remaining vessels and decides how best to divide the available funds to preserve the right cross section of our maritime heritage?"

Sadly, no-one. It's all the luck of the draw. Some get restored by (rich) individuals, a few get grossly over-restored by sloshing too much euro-money at them. The latter are then usually cocooned in damp drydocks and start rotting/rusting again. But there's usually a lavish visitor centre full of electronic simulations, so it doesn't matter.

The Cutty Sark was rotting from a mistaken application of the plywood and false decking technique, and the Great Britain is rusting at an alarming rate because of the damp unventilated drydock. Also, I am told, spores from a nearby timber yard have infected the new woodwork.

I have a photograph of the Cutty Sark moored in Falmouth bay, after restoration at his own expense by Captain Dolman (name?).
He would be turning in his grave now to see all the past and proposed indignities inflicted on the ship. Better if she had been driven under at 20 knots by a demonic skipper maintaining full sail in a force 12.

 

[Rum_Pirate]

[ QUOTE ]
I have a photograph of the Cutty Sark moored in Falmouth bay, after restoration at his own expense by Captain Dolman (name?).

[/ QUOTE ] Why not post it and share it with us so we can see how good it was?

 

[cliffordpope]

It's the one on the Cutty Sark website.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s138/Cliffordpope/CuttySark.jpg

It must have been a standard Falmouth postcard in the twenties. My copy is somewhere deep in the family archives. My father visited her as a small boy.