City Of Adelaide is the oldest survivor of only three composite ships in the world. She was William Pile's first composite ship and the only one left out of hundreds of sailing ships built on the Wear in the nineteenth century. She is five years older, and a little smaller than the world famous Cutty Sark, one of the other two composite survivors. City Of Adelaide is 178 feet long and 33 feet in width. Her overall length from the end of the spanker boom to the stern and the end of the jib boom at the bow was about 244 feet and the height of the top of the mainmast above the waterline was about 144 feet. Her displacement was 791 tons and she could carry 1500 tons of cargo. Her historical importance lies partly in the fact that she was a passenger ship with 14 first-class cabins and able to carry about 270 second class passengers.

She was built specifically for trade with the relatively new Colony of South Australia and was operated by the company of Devitt and Moore. This company started as shipbrokers and later became ship owners and prime movers in the concept of school ships and sail training. They owned or operated very many ships connecting Britain and Australia for more than half a century. Many of them were built in Sunderland by William Pile. One of the original shareholders in City Of Adelaide, and her first commander, was David Bruce (pictured right), a Scot who had previously commanded the barque Irene for eleven years. Captain Bruce and City Of Adelaide made annual voyages from London to Adelaide and two of his sons subsequently commanded the ship in turn. They both later became harbour masters, one for the Tyne, the other for Adelaide. One of Captain Bruce's great-grandsons lives in Newcastle and a great-granddaughter lives in Adelaide.

The ship voyaged annually from London to Adelaide and back to London, for 23 years from 1864. She held the record journey time of 65 days from London to Adelaide until beaten by Torrens, another Sunderland built ship from Laing's shipyard. She returned from Adelaide with passengers and a high-value cargo of wool, sometimes via Cape Horn. By 1887 however, she was becoming un-economical to run and she was sold, and then sold again. For a brief period she was used for coal transportation and later transatlantic timber carrying.

Her sailing days ended in 1893 and she was purchased by Southampton Corporation for use as a sanatorium and floating isolation hospital, following a cholera outbreak the previous year. She remained in Southampton until 1923 when she was sold to the Admiralty, towed to Irvine and converted and re-named HMS Carrick, to be used as the Drill Ship for the Clyde Division of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR), being moored in Greenock. The change of name was necessary because the Royal Australian Navy already had a ship named 'Adelaide'. The  opening ceremony as Drill Ship was attended by the Duke of Montrose, who had served in Devitt and Moore's training ship 'Hesperus' as a junior officer. During the Second World War she served as the administrative centre for the training of gunners for Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships (DEMS).

She was fitted with 6" guns but the training undertaken did not involve firing practice. However she had an anti-aircraft Oerlikon gun on her upper deck, which was used in defense during the Clydeside Blitz.

Following the war she was scheduled for breaking up, but the intervention of senior figures prevented this, and she was saved to be transferred to the RNVR for use as a Clubhouse. After some modification, and an opening ceremony carried out by Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, she served this purpose until 1990, being moored on the Clyde in central Glasgow.

In 1978 a very low tide caused her to be caught against the quay alongside which she was lying, resulting in her becoming trapped and heeled to 35 degrees, with consequent flooding of the interior (see picture below). In 1989 the ship was once again flooded and partly sunk, and the RNVR Club was unable to finance salvage, so the vessel was declared a Total Loss. At this time Glasgow City Council applied for Listed Building status to facilitate preservation of the ship, and this inspired move resulted in her being listed as Category A (i.e. of the highest importance).

She was purchased in 1990 by a maritime trust, and was towed to Prince's Dock where she sank in unexplained circumstances during the night preceding a planning inquiry appeal over a proposed development of the surrounding area. At this stage she was in grave danger of destruction, to the extent that even the Director of Planning of Glasgow City Council asked for her to be de-listed. However, her legal protection saved her, and she was subsequently acquired by the Scottish Maritime Museum (SMM), who organized the complex task of raising her, and towing her to Irvine, the site of the Museum, also the location of her previous conversion in 1923. She has been back in Irvine since May 1992.

Since 1992 the SMM under the Directorship of Mr. Jim Tildesley has carried out much physical work on the vessel, in tandem with fascinating historical research conducted by Dr. Alan Platt and Mr. Robert Sexton, the latter being based in Adelaide. The vessel has been put on a slipway which had to be specially prepared, incorporating a 19th century slipway cradle obtained from Aberdeen. Seventy tons of silt, cement, and ballast were removed, much of it by hand. Non-historic internal structures were removed, and university specialists undertook a programme of survey of the iron framing, and timbers. A detailed Conservation Plan exists.

Regrettably, SMM is unable to obtain further funding to continue the restoration work, and the ship is a significant financial liability to the Museum. The Museum was forced into the appalling situation of having to apply for the vessel to be broken up, having been the instrument of her preservation only a few years beforehand. However, as the result of her listed status, press publicity, activity within the Scottish Parliament, and formal objections, the application was refused, a considered affirmation of the ship's status and importance.

Thus this ship has survived three sinkings, and three attempts to have her broken up. We believe that she should come home, before she gets herself into any more trouble!