'City of Adelaide' clipper ship threatened with demolition

What is probably the last Devitt & Moore ship in existence, the clipper ship 'City of Adelaide' which carried free British settlers to Australia in the 19th century and returned to the UK carrying wool, has been threatened with demolition by the Scottish Maritime Museum (SMM) which owns the ship.

The SMM has been served notice to vacate the site at Irvine, near Glasgow, where the clipper is located. Since it cannot afford to move the ship it has applied to demolish her in March 2010 with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Efforts to save the vessel and move her to Australia are being master-minded by a company formed for the purpose, Clipper Ship 'City of Adelaide Ltd' www.cityofadelaide.org.au  Letters have been written to the British and Australian Prime Ministers appealing for their support. A petition on the Number 10 Downing Street website http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/City-of-Adelaide/ calls on the UK government to gift the world heritage ship to the people of South Australia in time for the State's 175th birthday in 2011. Around £1.1 million will be needed to save the ship and move her to Port Adelaide.

An OP living in Australia, Rohan Greenland (74-79), is actively involved in this campaign and has urged individual OPs to add their support in any way they can. He may be contacted at spindoc@netspeed.com.au     
In his words: "City of Adelaide was the name of my first dormitory in Macquarie and had special significance to me as I was born and grew up in the South Australian capital before moving to England and Pangbourne in the 1970s."