ucture remaining visible. In a unique move the ship was given Listed Building status by a Scottish quango and was purchased for the token sum of £1.00 (UKP) in 1990. It was put under the charge of the Scottish Martime Museum. A reprieve? Apparently not, because in the year 2000 the trustees of the Scottish Maritime Museum applied for permission to demolish the newly designated Category A Listed Building. The application was refused.
From this point forward the story becomes really quite farcical, with a conference on the subject concluding that funds should be raised to save her (but no real indication as to where these funds were to be found) and the decision to give the ship its original name back, becoming once again The City of Adelaide. The Scottish Maritime Museum applied once more in 2009 for permission to demolish the ship "at an estimated cost of £650,000". In January 2010, the Australian Adelaide Preservation Trust made a proposal to take the ship off the UK's hands. To cut a long story short, the UK has proved unable to preserve this remarkable and once beautiful ship. It has fallen to the Australian organization to rescue her. Here's the concluding paragraph from the Wiki page:
Scottish Minister for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop announced on 28 August 2010 that the City of Adelaide would not be deconstructed, and that Adelaide has been identified as the preferred bidder. Extensive work will be undertaken to allow the ship to be moved and displayed in Adelaide during 2011, the 175th anniversary of the settlement of South Australia, the first stage of which was completed in December 2010. The group based at Sunderland congratulated the Australian group but stated that their campaign to keep the ship in the United Kingdom would continue.
Based on the UK's previous handling of the ship, I sincerely hope that the Sunderland group fail.
Sorry about this - I just had to get it off my chest.
See the Wikipedia and City of Adelaide websites for more information.
UPDATE 16th October 2013:
Thanks very much to Rob of the Thames Pics website for the news that Adelaide is now on her way to Australia. Here's what Rob said about her arrival at Chatham in September: "Before leaving these shores, she has come down from Irvine to first be fumigated at Chatham docks and to then say an emotional goodbye at an event in Greenwich by the Cutty Sark with the Duke of Edinburgh in attendance." Do have a look at the Thames Pics page dedicated to the ship's arrival for some really terrific photographs - Adelaide on the back of a transport ship is amazingly impressive. There are videos of her too, also by Rob on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QppN8FZID5I