A determined bid to save one of the most historic ships in the world and bring her to Falmouth has been launched by a Taunton-based business man.

HMS Carrick is the only wooden sailing passenger ship of the 19th Century to have survived in Great Britain. She is also the earliest surviving clipper ship and the oldest of three composite vessels still in existence worldwide. She is a sister ship to the Cutty Sark which was once a familiar sight in Falmouth.

Tim Roper, the man behind the scheme, said: "It is such an historical vessel and such a beautiful vessel that to scrap it would be a crime really. I have been to see it and it is simply the most fantastic thing in the world.

"How could anyone not want to save her and restore her to her original beauty. I have an exclusive agreement with North Ayreshire council to buy her and I then have to bring her to Falmouth. I think that will cost in the region of £300,000 to £400,000 so it is a big task."

In an interview with the Packet, Mr Roper, a 50-year-old commercial property developer with no previous interest in ships said: "The only connection with Cornwall is in name - HMS Carrick and the Carrick Roads."

Mr Roper has discussed the issue with Truro's harbourmaster Captain Andy Brigden, Rodger Radcliffe, Carrick district council's economic development officer, Andrew Gunn, enterprise manager with the South West Regional Development Agency, as well as others including Jonathan Griffin, the director of the maritime museum in Falmouth, and representatives of South West Tourism, the King Harry Ferry Company and Trelissick Gardens.

"Everyone is very keen and supportive," he claimed. The downside being no one had any money to finance the project.

The vessel is 176 foot long and weighs 800 tonnes. Launched in Sunderland in 1864, five years before her sister ship the Cutty Sark, HMS Carrick - or The City of Adelaide as she was originally known - was designed to carry cargo and passengers to the ports of South Australia. She carried so many in her first class, second class and basic emigrant accommodation that researchers have estimated that more than 60 per cent of the current population of the state of South Australia can trace their families' arrival to the ship.

Sold in 1887, The City of Adelaide spent six years as a cargo carrier before ending her sailing days in 1893 and becoming a floating isolation hospital. Thirty years later, the Admiralty bought her as a Royal Navy training ship for volunteer reservists and she was re-named HMS Carrick. Moored in Glasgow, she spent 44 years as the RNVR's floating base in Scotland. Now, after several attempts to preserve her, the once proud vessel lies on a Scottish slipway facing imminent break-up.

Mr Roper believes that he can re-float her and bring her to Falmouth - as long as English Heritage agrees not to list her in the future.

"She is a lovely old ship with a fascinating past. I've negotiated a deal with the Scottish Maritime Museum, her current owners, who have been forced into applying to North Ayrshire council to deconstruct' her - to sell her to me for a token amount of £1."

In Falmouth, the vessel could be used to promote all things Cornish especially the history and heritage of the River Fal.

"I believe she could be a unique icon for the county - a physical link between Cornwall's present as a prime tourist destination and its glorious seafaring past," said Mr Roper.

He is hoping to be able to moor the vessel alongside the mussel boats just down river from Trelissick Gardens and the King Harry Ferry so she can be accessed by road or river via the Fal River Links project. She could become a restaurant or used for education purposes.