SS Robin September 2010, ready to leave Lowestoft | |
History | |
---|---|
United Kingdom | |
Name | Robin (1890–1900) |
Owner | |
Builder | Mackenzie, MacAlpine & Co, then Robert Thomson, Orchard House Yard, Blackwall, London [4] [5] |
Yard number | 26 [4] |
Launched | 16 September 1890 [5] |
Completed | November 1890 [4] |
Identification | IMO number: 5222287 |
Fate | Sold to Spain 1900 |
Spain | |
Name | Maria (1900–1974) |
Owner |
|
Fate | Purchased for preservation 1974 |
United Kingdom | |
Name | Robin (1974–present) [4] |
Owner |
|
Status | Museum ship |
General characteristics | |
Tonnage | 366 GRT [1] (later 342 GRT) [6] 550 DWT |
Length | 143 ft (44 m) loa [1] |
Beam | 22.9 ft (7.0 m) [1] |
Depth | 11 ft (3.4 m) [1] |
Installed power | Triple expansion steam engine 152 ihp (113 kW) [6] |
Propulsion | Single screw [6] [5] |
Sail plan | Originally schooner rigged |
Speed | 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) |
SS Robin is a 350 gross registered ton (GRT) steam coaster, a class of steamship designed for carrying bulk and general cargoes in coastal waters, and the oldest complete example in the world. One of a pair of coasters built in Bow Creek, London in 1890, the ship was built for British owners, but spent most of her long working life on the Spanish coast as Maria.
In 1974, she was purchased for restoration as Robin and is listed by National Historic Ships as part of the National Historic Fleet (the nautical equivalent of a Grade 1 Listed Building). She is situated at Trinity Buoy Wharf in east London, opening as the SS Robin museum, theatre and educational centre in 2014.
As built, Robin was 143 feet (44 m) long, her beam is 23 feet (7.0 m), her depth is 12.2 feet (3.7 m) and her tonnage is 366 GRT. [1] She carried about 450 tons of cargo.[ citation needed ]
The engine is a three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine, developing 152 indicated horsepower (113 kW), and made in 1890 by Gourlay Brothers & Co of Dundee, Scotland. [6] [5] Her maximum speed was 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph). [6]
In Lloyd's Register she was described as a "steel screw 3-masted schooner", [7] and had indeed been provided with sails for all three masts when first built. [8]
Robin was ordered from Mackenzie, MacAlpine & Co of Orchard House Yard, Hercules Wharf, Blackwall, London, situated in Bow Creek at the mouth of the River Lea, by London shipowner Robert Thomson, and launched on 16 September 1890. [5] [8] However, she and her sister Rook were completed by Thomson himself, though the reason is unknown. [6] [8] After fitting out in the East India Dock, Robin was towed to Dundee to have her engine, boiler and auxiliary machinery installed by Gourlay Brothers & Co. When completed she was registered in London with Official number 98185 and in the ownership of Arthur Ponsonby of Newport, then in Monmouthshire. [1] [5] [8]
On 20 December 1890, Robin commenced her career in the British coastal service at Liverpool, with a crew of 12 signing the Articles for her maiden voyage. As a coaster her range was normally limited to the Home Trade limits (broadly from the Elbe to Brest). However, on her first voyage she went 400 miles (640 km) further, to Bayonne; [5] the owners had to replace the Master's mate with another, who held the correct certificate, until the ship returned to Swansea on 10 January. [8] Her second voyage began at Swansea on 14 January 1891, visiting Rouen, Northfleet on the River Thames, Eastham and Garston on the River Mersey, Plymouth, Deauville, Guernsey, London, Rochester, Newport, Swansea, Cherbourg arriving in Northfleet by 5 April 1891. This would be typical of her trading under the Red Ensign, carrying bulk cargoes of grain, iron ore, scrap steel, pit props, china clay, railway steel, general cargoes of casked and baled goods such as herring barrels, and even granite blocks for the Caledonian Canal. [5] [9] In 1892, Robin was sold to Andrew Forrester Blackater of Glasgow, where she was re-registered. [2]
In 1900 Robin was sold and renamed Maria; for the next 74 years she had three different Spanish owners:
Until 1965, Maria's structure stayed mainly unchanged; in 1966 she had a major refit with the whaleback (at the stern) and the mizzen mast removed, the foremast and the funnel shortened, and the forecastle extended. The coal-fired furnaces were modified for oil fuel. After this she resumed trading. [5]
Maria was discovered by the Maritime Trust in 1972. Following an inspection, it was decided that she was worth preserving, and in May 1974 she was purchased, on the brink of being sold to Spanish breakers. In June 1974 she came home to St Katharine Docks under her own steam and was renamed Robin. She was restored at a cost of £250,000, with most work taking place in 1974 and 1975 at the Doust & Co shipyard at Rochester, Kent, and was subsequently moored in St Katharine Docks. [5] [8] She was moved to new moorings in 1991 at West India Quay but fell into disrepair. [10]
In 2000 David and Nishani Kampfner were looking for a unique space to be transformed into an area for innovation and learning. They bought Robin for £1. In 2002, SS Robin Trust was created to bring awareness to the general public about the importance of the ship. With the help of many volunteers they began restoration on this coastal steamer.
Crossrail provided SS Robin Trust with a £1.9 million loan to enable her to move to dry dock for restoration works to commence. Before she was able to be moved, her masts, funnel, lifeboats and davits were dismantled and removed by Cutty Sark Enterprises. [10] She was then towed from West India Quay down the Canary Wharf locks to South Quay for temporary mooring. Around this time the Heritage Lottery Fund had also been approved and SS Robin Trust was awarded a grant of just under £1 million.
In June 2008, Robin was to undergo her first seaward journey in 35 years from South Quay to Lowestoft for structural restoration using, so far as was practicable, the same craft skills with which she was built in 1890, conserving her Victorian technology. [5] Once at Lowestoft a detailed examination revealed that after 118 years she was now considered too fragile to be able to float again. Initially it was thought that Robin would need a 40% steel replacement, but after the examination it showed that she would need an 80% steel replacement thereby essentially ruining her historical value. These new findings urged SS Robin Trust to find a less destructive approach maintaining Robin. It soon became clear that a pontoon would be the most innovative and least destructive method to keep her floating and to preserve and display her original riveted fabric. [5] It also provided a wealth of more space. In 2010, Robin was lifted by two cranes and placed onto her new pontoon. [11] She was then towed to Tilbury [12] where she was moored for a year.
After 3 years of conservation work in Tilbury, in July 2011 Robin returned to east London, where she was originally built, to undergo further internal restoration and preparation before opening as the SS Robin museum, theatre and educational centre in the Royal Victoria Dock in Newham borough in 2014, with the support of a grant of just over £950,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund. [13] [14] [15]
She was then subsequently moved to the Millennium Mills Dock, where she was temporarily berthed for further restoration and development before reopening to the public, at the western end of the Royal Victoria Dock (close to the London Cable Car), in 2015.
In 2023, she was moved to Trinity Buoy Wharf. [16]
In 2002, David and Nishani Kampfner bought Robin and founded the SS Robin Trust as a registered charity (Prince Philip is an honorary member, and Jim Fitzpatrick MP, and Channel 4 news reader Jon Snow are patrons). [5] The Trust converted her into an educational centre and photographic gallery; in this restoration, the original beams, structures, fittings and engine were preserved and restored by her volunteer crew. [5] She operated as a learning centre and photojournalism gallery from 2003, [5] with an extensive programme of exhibitions, talks, seminars and workshops designed to build bridges between communities and interacting with local schools and businesses. The gallery, with a flexible classroom and exhibition area, was accommodated within the original cargo hold. [5] [17]
Nimrod was a wooden-hulled, three-masted sailing ship with auxiliary steam engine that was built in Scotland in 1867 as a whaler. She was the ship with which Ernest Shackleton made his Nimrod Expedition to Antarctica in 1908–09. After the expedition she returned to commercial service, and in 1919 she was wrecked in the North Sea with the loss of ten members of her crew.
Orchard House Yard was an English shipbuilding yard located at Leamouth, on the River Lea at Bow Creek. Forming part of the Orchard House estate, a number of shipbuilders occupied the site over time:
Sydney Heritage Fleet, is the trading name of Sydney Maritime Museum Ltd., a public company in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Polly Woodside is a Belfast-built, three-masted, iron-hulled barque, preserved in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), and forming the central feature of the South Wharf precinct. The ship was originally built in Belfast by William J. Woodside and was launched in 1885. Polly Woodside is typical of thousands of smaller iron barques built in the last days of sail, intended for deep water trade around the world and designed to be operated as economically as possible.
SS John Oxley is a steamship that previously was a pilot boat and lighthouse and buoy tender. The ship was built in Scotland in 1927 for the Queensland Government. The vessel was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy during World War II. Returned to her duties after the war, John Oxley remained active until 1968 when her deteriorating condition made her unusable. In 1970, the ship was donated by the Queensland Government to the Lady Hopetoun and Port Jackson Marine Steam Museum for preservation, but due to other projects, work was sidelined until 2004. The ship has undergone restoration for the past 20 years at Rozelle Bay on a floating dock. In April 2022 she was towed to dry dock at Garden Island, re-floated successfully and returned to Rozelle Bay for further restoration work afloat.
SS Aenos, formerly SS Cedar Branch, was a British-built cargo steamship. She was completed in England in 1910 and sunk in the Battle of the Atlantic in 1940.
The SS South Steyne is a former Manly ferry on Sydney Harbour. She was the world's largest steam-powered passenger ferry and operated on the service from 1938 to 1974. Restored in the 1980s, she served as a restaurant ship in Newcastle in the 1990s, and in 2000 was moved back to Sydney and open to the public at Darling Harbour. Since April 2016 she has been stored at Berrys Bay. She was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
SS Karagola was a cargo steamship of the British India Steam Navigation Company (BI). She was built in Scotland in 1887, and operated a regular cargo, passenger and mail service in Burma. In 1901 a fire damaged her beyond repair, so she was scrapped.
SS Sirsa was a steel-hulled merchant steamship that was built in Scotland in 1883 and scrapped in Bombay in 1908. She spent her entire career with the British India Steam Navigation Company (BI).
SS Lanthorn was a 2,299 GRT cargo ship built in 1889 as SS Magnus Mail, renamed in 1916 and sunk by enemy action in 1917. She was a combined steamship and two-masted sailing ship.
SS Traffic was a baggage tender of the White Star Line, built in 1872 by Philip Speakman in Runcorn and made of English Oak.
John Bowes, built on the River Tyne in England in 1852, was one of the first steam colliers. She traded for over 81 years before sinking in a storm off Spain.
SS Telefon was a Norwegian cargo steamship of about 1,400 GRT built by on the River Tyne in 1900. She was wrecked in South Shetland Islands in 1908, though later salved, repaired and returned to service. She was sunk in a collision off Denmark in 1913 as the British Kinneil.
The MV North Head was a ferry operated by the Port Jackson & Manly Steamship Company and its successors on the Manly service from 1913 until 1985.
Knocker White is a Dutch-built tugboat, currently preserved as a museum ship at Trinity Buoy Wharf. She was built in 1924 by T. van Duivendijk, Lekkerkerk, Netherlands for Harrisons Lighterage Company, under the name Cairnrock.
SS Suffolk was a refrigerated cargo steamship that was built in England in 1899 for the Federal Steam Navigation Company. In the Second Boer War she took horses from Australia to South Africa. She was wrecked in 1900 on a voyage from Austria-Hungary to South Africa, with the loss of 930 horses.
SS Rosalind was a cargo ship built by Tyne Iron Shipbuilding of Willington Quay and launched in 1879. She operated as a cargo carrier based at Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1907, she was sold to a Swedish operator named N P Shensson and sailed the Baltic Sea until May 1918 when she was sunk by a mine.
Rosalind was a steam cargo liner that was launched in England in 1890 for Dampfschiffs Rhederei zu Hamburg as Tosari. In 1891 Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie (DOAL) bought her and renamed her Admiral. In 1902 the Bowring Brothers' New York, Newfoundland & Halifax Steamship Company bought her and renamed her Rosalind. In 1912 the St Laurence Shipping Company bought her and renamed her City of Sydney. She was wrecked off the coast of Nova Scotia in 1914.
SS Tokomaru was a British steam cargo ship built in 1893 as Westmeath by C. S. Swan & Hunter of Wallsend for a Sunderland shipowner. The steamer was sold the following year to Shaw, Savill and Albion Steamship Company, renamed Tokomaru, and converted to a refrigerated ship for their New Zealand and Australian routes. In January 1915 the ship was torpedoed and sank off Le Havre, France.
SS Vespasian was a steel-hulled cargo steamship that was built in Sunderland in 1887 as Eastern Prince, renamed Vespasian in 1908 and scrapped in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1914. In 1908 the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company converted her to steam turbine propulsion. She is notable as the first ship in the World whose turbines drove her propeller by reduction gearing instead of direct drive.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)