The clipper ship, City of Adelaide was built at the shipyards of W. Pile, Hay & Co., of Sunderland and launched on 7 May 1864. She was built for a syndicate of owners which included the shipping agents Devitt & Moore of London and Adelaide, and her first master was Captain David Bruce. Built expressly for the South Australian trade, she carried local cargo back to England, for over 20 years. The ship is currently in Irvine, Scotland, where she faces an uncertain future due to lack of available funds for restoration. An Adelaide based Action Group was formed with the primary purpose of saving the vessel from destruction.

The City of Adelaide was the fiirst ship built for Devitt and Moore and intended solely for the passenger and cargo trade between London and Adelaide, South Australia. City of Adelaide was a composite built ship, ie with iron frames and a teak hull. Composite built ships were built in the era between wooden sailing ships and iron ships, although all three forms of sailing ship existed at the same time. Composite ships were more economical than wooden as they were lighter in construction and capable of carrying a greater deadweight on the same tonnage. Together with the famous clipper ship Cutty Sark, built several years later, the City of Adelaide is the only other composite built ship remaining.

City of Adelaide was 791 tons, 176 feet in length, breadth 33 feet, depth 18 feet. Her fastest run was London to Adelaide in 65 days in 1867. During her ownership by Devitt & Moore (1864-1888) the ship had only a few captains: David Bruce 1864-1867, his son John Bruce from 1867-72, L W E Bowen 1873-1875, Alexander Bruce 1875-1876, and E D Alston from 1876-1887. The ship was laid up and changed ownership in 1889.

The ship could carry 1500 tons of cargo in addition to first and second class passengers and emigrants in steerage. Her return leg to London usually saw her loaded with wool collected from Port Augusta at the head of Spencer Gulf. A number of private diaries are held by the State Library of South Australia which give details of emigrants' experiences aboard the City of Adelaide. Apparently a comfortable and happy ship many passengers made return trips to England and back to South Australia aboard her. For an account of a famous ocean race between the Yatala and the City of Adelaide see The Register, June 11th, 1867, p. 2. 

The ship did not always have fair sailing, head winds and calms being experienced on occasion. On one occasion she was stranded on Semaphore beach, off Adelaide. Tugs assisted in refloating her after the discharge of cargo. No damage was sustained.

In 1889 the ship was sold to T Dixon & Son of Belfast and was cut down to a barque and employed in the North Atlantic timber trade. In 1893 she was sold to the Southampton Corporation for conversion to an isolation hospital during a cholera outbreak. Thirty years later she was sold to the Admiralty, renamed HMS Carrick and converted to a training ship for the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. Subsequently used as an accommodation ship and scheduled for breaking up following World War II, City of Adelaide (or Carrick) was presented to the RNVR Club(Scotland) and fitted out as a floating club and moored at Custom House Quay, Glasgow. She was moved across river to Carlton Place in 1954. Finally in 1992 the ship became the property of the Scottish Maritime Museum and was moved to Irvine to await restoration.

Course, A. G. Painted ports: the story of the ships of Devitt & Moore London: Hollis & Carter, 1961

Jones, Clement Sea trading and sea training: being a short history of the firm of Devitt and Moore London: E. Arnold , 1936

Lubbock, Basil The Colonial Clippers 4th ed., reprinted Glasgow: Brown, Son & Ferguson, 1955 pp. 148-49

The Observer, 1 January, 1921 p. 26 for a photograph of the ship.

Register 11 June 1867 p. 2 col. g Grain race. This is an account of a grain race between City of Adelaide and Yatala

Adelaide Observer 29 August 1874 p. 17 cols a-c Stranding of the City of Adelaide

Bray, Sarah Diary [Diary kept by Sarah Bray, including an account of the voyage from London to Adelaide, on the maiden voyage of the 'City of Adelaide'] D 7320(L)

Edelsten, Frederick A. Diary [includes a voyage from England aboard the 'City of Adelaide', July to October 1867] D 5484(L)

McLauchlan, James Anderson Diary [includes a voyage from London to Adelaide in the full rigged ship 'City of Adelaide', May to August 1874] D 7608(L)

City of Adelaide: the splendid clipper ship

National Maritime Museum: Devitt & Moore

Cutty Sark: the world's last tea clipper

City of Adelaide after being reduced to a barque