One of the first ‘Composite’ ships, combining a wrought iron frame with wooden planking, Adelaide was still considered experimental upon her launch in 1864. Within 5 years the advantages of strength and speed made this style of construction commonplace, the Cutty Sark (1869) being another famous example of the type. While most clippers began their lives as commercial vessels before turning to transport after the opening of the Suez Canal, the City of Adelaide is one of the rare purpose-built passenger ships designed for long journeys taking emigrants to the Americas or Australia.
The combination of innovative engineering and novel commercial approach was characteristic of the ship’s designer, William Pile of Sunderland. The inventor and propagator of the composite design, his ships were in perpetual demand. At his death the Sunderland Times would argue: ‘His genius was displayed in the building of ships, wherein he was not excelled. As Watt was great as a builder of engines; and Stephenson was great as a builder of railways; so William Pile was great as a builder of ships’.
City of Adelaide would bring more immigrants to South Australia than any other vessel in the 19th-century, making the dangerous passage from Britain twice a year. To this day many Australian families can trace their descent from the ship’s passenger lists. City of Adelaide is thus widely seen as an important piece of
tangible heritage from Australia’s colonial period.
On account of this historical importance, it was decided in 2017 that her largely intact hull, slowly decaying on the Ayrshire coast, would be transported to Australia to become a museum ship. City of Adelaide is thus the world’s oldest surviving composite clipper, beating the Cutty Sark, whose design she helped influence, by 5 years. William Pile’s ship stands today as a convergent point for three important narratives: her ground- breaking design, her role in the birth of the Australian nation, and her unprecedented age.
Dawson’s work, painted long before City of Adelaide became a historical monument, conveys two central elements of her nautical career. Set amidst the flying spume of the perilous Southern Ocean, the difficulty of the long voyages made by Adelaide is made evident to the viewer; the ship placed upon a matrix of white brushstrokes that embodies the violent seas. At the same time, the artist chooses to include another vessel in the background, a nod to the fact that speed and commercial races were integral parts of the Clipper experience. Coming in only a few hours earlier than competitors on a voyage around the world could establish a ship’s reputation for decades, leading to a significant increase in profitability. Therefore, while City of Adelaide today represents a nation’s heritage, Dawson reaffirms the speed and danger that were ever present in her heyday.