The Rudder
The 'City of Adelaide' lost its rudder in heavy weather south of Kangaroo Island in November 1877, eight days out of Port Augusta en route for London. The ship was in great danger and saved only by the superb seamanship of Captain Edward Alston, who was able to bring the City of Adelaide around by trailing chains overboard and, after a perilous voyage through Backstairs Passage, limp into Port Adelaide for repair on Fletcher's Slip.
No single piece of wood large enough for the main piece could be found for the replacement, so it was made from two pieces of grey ironbark, scarphed together, and fitted with brass fittings. Captain E.D. Alston subsequently took the ship back to England via the Cape Horn without mishap. Like the ship, the rudder still survives, and represents a major accomplishment for the shipwrights of Adelaide at the time.
In 2005, Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPI&F) scientists helped British archeologists to confirm that the surviving City of Adelaide rudder, much damaged by time and seawater, was the one built in Adelaide in 1877. The scientists were able to confirm that the rudder was scarphed and made from Australian grey ironbark proving it to be the 1877 rudder.
Source: Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries News release, 20 December, 2005.
