Seen mounted on a barge lying in Dock 2 in Port Adelaide's inner harbour on 8th February 2024.

The CITY OF ADELAIDE is the oldest of the two surviving composite construction (timber planking on iron frames) clipper ships, the other being the slightly younger (but much better known) CUTTY SARK. She was built by William Pile, Hay & Co. in Sunderland in 1864. From 1864 to 1887 she completed 23 round trips between England and Adelaide, carrying goods and migrants on the outward trip, and wool, copper, and passengers on the return trip to London, playing an important role in the growth of the colony of South Australia.

After 1887, she carried coal around the British coast, and timber across the Atlantic. In 1893, she became a floating hospital in Southampton, and in 1923 was purchased by the Royal Navy (commissioned as HMS CARRICK to avoid confusion with the newly-commissioned HMAS ADELAIDE) and based in Scotland as a training ship.

Decommissioned in 1948, she was donated to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Club and moored on the River Clyde in central Glasgow as the club's headquarters until she was damaged by flooding in 1989 before sinking at her mooring in 1991. In 1992 she was recovered by the Scottish Maritime Museum and moved to a private slipway next to the Museum, with restoration work commencing and continuing until funding ceased in 1999. Her continuing existence was placed in doubt when the Museum received an eviction notice from the owners of the slipway, and the Museum sought to have her deconstructed, while rescue proposals were developed by groups in Sunderland and South Australia.

In 2010 the Scottish Government decided that the ship would be moved to Adelaide for preservation as a museum ship, and she was formally renamed as CITY OF ADELAIDE by the Duke of Edinburgh in 2013. Preparations were made to transport her to Australia, and she left Scotland in September 2013, arriving in Adelaide in February 2014 as deck cargo aboard the heavy lift wessel PALANPUR (photo on shipspotting.com).

CITY OF ADELAIDE is currently undergoing preservation and restoration work, and is open to the public for guided tours. See www.cityofadelaide.org.au for more information about the ship.