On Stranger Tides


I'm not a great fan of people who occupy things - generally speaking - but there are exceptions in every walk of life.

Take Peter Maddison from Sunderland - he boarded (to use a good pirate term) a clipper ship called the City of Adelaide last week.

Because he wants the vessel to he returned to Wearside on the north east coast of England - where it was built originally in 1864.

The reason being that the ship is now a wreck - or at least a shadow of its former self - and the Scottish Maritime Museum plans to ship the ship back to Australia - where it sailed the high seas for many a year.

But Peter Maddison feels so strongly about returning the clipper to the land of its birth - Sunderland - that he climbed aboard to thwart the plan to deport the vessel to the land of Oz.

In a special £1 million steel cage especially built for the purpose which has already arrived in the UK.

Now it should be pointed out that the city of Adelaide in Australia - not the City of Adelaide, the ship - won a bid to turn the clipper into a heritage and tourist attraction - back in in 2010.

But Peter Maddison - a former Sunderland councillor and chairman of the Sunderland City of Adelaide Recovery Fund (Scarf) - is not impressed with the plan and wants the boat to remain in the UK (i.e. Sunderland) - even though it has never moved from a slipway in Ayrshire since 1992.

Although Peter Maddison takes himself very seriously - he's even named his daughter Adelaide after his beloved ship - the Scottish Maritime Museum seems perfectly relaxed, laid back even. 

Jim Tildesley - project director with the Scottish Maritime Museum - told the BBC:

"This man has done this before. It will not hinder our plans or change our minds about the ship's future."

So it seems the riot police will not be needed - for a while at least.

I can't see how Mr Maddison will win his battle - though you have to admire the determination and eccentricity of the man.

I suppose he must have lots of time on his hands as he continues with his lonely struggle - but I hope the story has a happy ending.

Maybe he could move to Australia where the ship appears to have a bright future - because sometimes in life you've just got to accept - that the odds are too overwhelming.

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