A TAUNTON businessman is bidding to save one of the world's most historic ships and dock her in Falmouth.

Commercial property developer Tim Roper, of Isle Abbots, near Taunton, has secured ownership of HMS Carrick, the only wooden sailing passenger ship of the 19th Century to survive in Great Britain. The ship, which is 176 foot long and weighs 800 tonnes, is currently moored in Scotland but is facing immediate deconstruction.

So Mr Roper has agreed to take over the ship and move her to Falmouth to be a tourist attraction. Mr Roper said: "It is such a historical vessel and such a beautiful vessel that to scrap it would be a crime really.

"I have been up 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 back to Falmouth I think that will cost in the region of £300,000 and £400,000 so it is a big task."

HMS Carrick - or The City of Adelaide as she was originally known - was launched in Sunderland in 1864 and carried cargo and passengers to the ports of South Australia.

She then became a cargo ship before ending her days in 1893 when she became a floating isolation hospital. Three decades later the admiralty bought her as a Royal Navy training ship for reservists and renamed here HMS Carrick. Moored in Glas-gow, she spent 44 years as the navy's floating base in Scotland before being left to rot.

Mr Roper said: "I envisage turning her into a floating rest-aurant, an art gallery, a floating hotel, a college or even as unique office space for the hi-tech and creative industries.

"We are hoping to be able to moor her alongside the mussel boats just down river from Trelissick gardens and the King Harry Ferry so that she can be accessed by road or river."

Mr Roper is now hoping to get other businesses involved to help with the cost of the work.