The world's oldest clipper ship has started the first leg of what it is hoped will be her final journey - 10,000 miles to form the centrepiece of a museum in Australia.

About 1000 people said farewell yesterday to the 1864-built City of Adelaide which once plied her trade between the UK and Australia, establishing the colony. She was being towed from the Scottish Maritime Museum at Irvine for London, where she will be put onto a cargo ship to head to her final resting place in the city she is named after. She made 23 return voyages between London and Adelaide and 250,000 South Australians can link their roots to her.