SS Robin awarded Heritage Lottery Fund Stage 1 development grant

SS Robin Trust is delighted to announce that it was successful in being awarded Heritage Lottery Fund Stage 1 development funding in October 2009.  The Trust submitted its application in June 2009 on the basis of its innovative world-first floating museum concept.  The Stage One pass and development grant will help create London’s most significant maritime attraction – a floating museum centred on SS Robin as a lasting symbol of human enterprise, endeavour and ingenuity.

Heritage Lottery Fund boost for SS Robin

SS Robin tow to Lowestoft

more about “SS Robin tow to Lowestoft“, posted with vodpod

Riveting facts

As mentioned in a previous post, SS Robin made an appearance on BBC’s Coast. In the feature two former riveters traveled all the way from Hartlepool to Lowestoft in south England to visit SS Robin, London’s most important London-built ship  and an 1890 riveted steel hull steamship.

A woman riveting

SS Robin brought to the nation’s attention just how important riveting was – not just is the building of the ship way back in the 19th century - but within British industrial structural engineering as a whole.

Image of the week: ‘Lifeboat’

Original engravings on SS Robin lifeboats discovered by restorers

This image was captured by professional restorers from Harbour Marine Services, the specialist boatyard based in Southwold contracted by the Trust to undertake much of the SS Robin conservation work. HMS are currently reinstating SS Robin’s lifeboats and cradles which were removed after becoming structurally unsafe during the slipping operation in 2008. Shipyard Manager John Buckley was alerted to the fascinating discovery by two of his team. Burning off the old paint, they discovered the engraving in the sheerstrakes of the lifeboats. The engraving shows that these lifeboats came from a ship called Medina, registered in Southampton in 1931 and with an interesting story of her own.