Tag: ship

UK’s oldest cargo-carrying sea-going steamship is towed away for restoration

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SS Robin, the oldest complete steam ship in the world

SS Robin, the oldest complete steam ship in the world

SS Robin, the oldest complete steam ship in the world

Victorian era steam ship SS Robin, the oldest complete steam
ship in the world, is towed away for restoration

The Victorian steam ship SS Robin, said to be the UK’s oldest complete cargo-carrying seagoing steamship and one of only three National Register of Historic Vessels Grade1/Core Collection ships in London – has left her home berth in Canary Wharf on her way to being restored.

The refit and restoration is the culmination of six years’ work for the SS Robin Trust, and has benefited from a £1.9 million loan from Crossrail, the new east-west railway for the capital. The new line is set to open a station near the SS Robin’s regular moorings next year.

“Volunteers and professionals have been working for months to prepare Robin for this complex journey, the first time she has left her home berth for nearly two decades,” said David Kampfner, project director and co-founder of SS Robin Trust.

I commuted daily to work in this part of London for several years and would see the SS Robin from the window of my train each morning – so I’m particularly pleased that her future seems assured.

PS – The SS Robin Trust has put up some new photos and video of her trip to Lowestoft. She’s to be slipped next week.

The Redoubtable at Trafalgar

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The Redoubtable at Trafalgar

Click on the photograph for a larger image

Talk of Barton Broad brings me to matters of Nelson, as it’s known that he stayed in the area in his youth, and would have sailed there. Legend even has it that he lost a chain and locket in the Broad’s depths.

And thinking of Nelson reminded me I’d taken this photo of a painting produced in 1805 by Louis Phillipe Crépin depicting the brave French ship Redoubtable in action at the Battle of Trafalgar. It hangs in the Paris Musée de la Marine.

One account of the role of the Redoubtable can found at the Wikipedia , but it’s interesting also to see Captain Lucas’s account here.

I think Turner painted the same scene several times, but I doubt he ever depicted the Victory’s Ensign hanging symbolically in the water from a broken flagpole.

An elderly retired Admiral comments: ‘Those bally Frenchmen never miss a trick when they have an opportunity to have a go at us Brits! Tried to keep us out of the Common Market several times. Of course I don’t mind going there on holiday and I’ll drink their wine, but there is a limit and these Froggies haven’t a clue where it might be… Pshaw!”

The Redoubtable at Trafalgar

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The horrific burning of the British East-Indiaman Kent off the coast of Bengal


Burning of the British East-Indiaman Kent by Theodore Gudin

Burning of the British East-Indiaman Kent Burning of the British East-Indiaman Kent Burning of the British East-Indiaman Kent

Burning of the British East-Indiaman Kent

The burning of the British East-Indiaman Kent, pictured by Théodore Gudin in 1825

I won’t be able to put up many posts at intheboatshed.net this week as we’ll be sailing on the Norfolk Broads for the next few days – though you can be sure I’ll try to come back with with a collection of stories and photos!

In the meantime, here are some more of my promised shots from the wonderful Paris Musée de la Marine.

Like the previous featured painting of Napoleon being feted by crowds at Antwerp, this is also by Théodore Gudin – but the subject couldn’t be more different.

Instead of a successful and adored leader surrounded by a cheering admirers, The Burning of the Kent shows the British East India Company ship sinking and burning in a storm off Bengal. The story goes that during the storm a lamp fell during a powerful gust and set fire to the ship close to the area where the gunpowder was kept.

Gudin pulls no punches in presenting the horror of the disastrous sinking, or the heroism of the rescuers from another British ship, the Cambria.

For more intheboatshed.net posts featuring Paris, click here.