SS Robin to move to Trinity Buoy Wharf on December 10th 2023

In 2017, We proudly announced that SS Robin was returning home but things did not quite work out that way because of various issues. However, we can bring the news that the move from the Royal Docks to Trinity Buoy Wharf will eventually bring SS Robin home to the Orchard Yard on the River Lea where she was built by Mackenzie, MacAlpine & Co in 1890.

SS Robin is the world’s only surviving complete Victorian steamship, she was laid down at Orchard House Yard at Bow Creek, Blackwall, London, in December 1889, ‘Robin’ and her sister ship ‘Rook’, were launched into the River Lea in 1890.

Bow Creek and the banks of the Thames have been considered the world centre for shipbuilding with a proud tradition going back many hundreds of years, it was part of a global trading empire and supplied the bulk of the ships used in the Royal and Merchant Navies. The Thames Iron Works was one of the largest yards in the country, building the biggest ships either side of the River Lea at Bow Creek.

By 1890, ship builders in Scotland and on the north east coast with lower overheads had become fully established and had taken over the market, causing the yard to finally close in 1912. This brought large shipbuilding to an end in London and few smaller yards to go into a steady decline. Bomb damage in the Second World War, development and urban regeneration have largely cleared the Blackwall area of its maritime past.

SS Robin is one of very few London built ships left of this era. Trinity Buoy Wharf is only 220m down river from the slip where Robin was built. TBW has various advantages being open to the public and already has a group of heritage vessels. Permission was granted by the Port of London Authority for the SS Robin trust to drive two piles to provide secure mooring at the mouth of the Lea.

The SS Robin will begin its final journey to Trinity Buoy Wharf on Sunday morning, December 10th 2023. It is expected that SS Robin will depart the Royal Docks between 7.30am and 8.30am, reach the King George V lock at 9am and arrive at Trinity Buoy Wharf between 10am and 11am. The timings are approximate.

Best viewing point: you’re invited to watch the SS Robin arrival from the quayside at Trinity Buoy Wharf. The Orchard Café based on site will be open from 9am to 4pm this Sunday serving hot drinks and various hot lunch options.

The Dirty British Coaster was  immortalised in John Masefield’s poem ” Cargoes .”

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.

The British coastal cargo steamships were the workhorses of the Merchant fleet in the late 19th, early 20th Century around the ports of Britain and Northern Europe. However by the 1960s they had virtually disappeared.

SS Robin is a traditional raised quarterdeck coastal cargo steamer built in Orchard House Yard near the famous Thames Ironworks on the eastern tip of Isle of Dogs and launched in 1890.

She was built to high standards regarding materials and workmanship with her hull fitted out in East India Dock. From there she was taken to Dundee to have her boiler and engines fitted. After trials she was taken to Liverpool to begin her career as a coastal steamer in 1890.

For the next ten years she plied her trade around the ports of Britain and occasionally some of the continental ports carrying the heavy cargoes such as coal, steel and china clay for which the steamers became famous for.

However in 1900, she was sold to a Spanish owner who renamed her Maria and spent the next 70 odd years going up and down the North Atlantic coast, she survived Two World Wars, once getting an escort from the French Navy to protect her from U Boat attacks.

But then at the end of a hard working life and due to be scrapped, there was another twist of fate she was recognised by the Maritime Trust as a one of a kind and in 1974 was purchased and travelled back to Britain under her own steam.

From 1974 she was given her original name back and moored in St Katherine’s Dock and her restoration began. In 1991 she moved to West India Quay where between 2003-2007 she was used as an Education Centre and Gallery.

However more structural restoration was needed, so in 2008 she went back to the coast this time to Lowestoft to prepare for her latest reincarnation in the Royal Docks where she returned in 2011.

The SS Robin may still be a Dirty British Coaster of John Masefield’s poem but now she is in elite company. She’s part of the National Historic Fleet and one of only three ‘Core Collection’ (Grade 1) vessels in the capital. The other two ships are the Cutty Sark and HMS Belfast.