City of Adelaide to visit Greenwich

“Buckingham Palace has announced that HRH the Duke of Edinburgh will be involved in a celebration next month at Greenwich, London, marking the return of the clipper City of Adelaide to a trust in South Australia.

The Greenwich event, details of which are still being finalised, will be held on Friday 18th October.

The clipper, being carried on a barge, will be moored in the River Thames – close to its world famous and younger ‘sister’ the Cutty Sark – before beginning its long journey to Port Adelaide”

Why is she so important you ask? She is…

• the world’s oldest surviving clipper ship,
• one of only two surviving composite clippers (the other is the Cutty Sark; built 1869),
• one of only four surviving sailing ships to have taken emigrants from the British Isles to any destination in the world – the others are the Edwin Fox, Star of India and SS Great Britain (also a steamer),
• the last survivor of the timber trade between North America and the United Kingdom,
• part of the National Historic Fleet of the United Kingdom and listed in the prestigious Core Collection of the United Kingdom.