London & South East

SS Robin is lovingly restored in £1.9 million project

SS Robin

As the world’s oldest steamship, SS Robin enjoys a rich maritime past. Built on London’s River Lea in 1890, the ship was constructed at a time when industrial development and engineering dominated the British landscape.

The steamcoaster is listed in the Core Collection of the UK National Historic Ships Register and is regarded to be as historically important as Cutty Sark, HMS Belfast and SS Great Britain. She was sold to Spanish owners in the early 20th century and remained a working ship until the 1970s.

At this time, the Duke of Edinburgh had formed a collective organisation named the Maritime Trust, which aimed to safeguard the country’s maritime history by preserving a number of historic ships. As a result, SS Robin was returned to the UK.

In 2008, the SS Robin Trust secured a funding package from Crossrail and the two-year conservation project began at a cost of £1.9 million. Lead project managers for the conservation works were KDC London.

Nishani Kampfner, KDC London Director & cofounder of the SS Robin Trust, said:

“Unexpectedly, we discovered that there was a substantial amount of steelwork that needed to be replaced. The biggest hurdle we faced was keeping her afloat on her own hull, which required the replacement of 60-70% of the riveted steel plates and would therefore have been a substantial change to the original fabric of the ship.

“So instead of this, we decided on a world-first conservation solution: to support the ship’s hull using a brand new, specially commissioned floating steel pontoon, which would act as the structurally sound support for the vessel. This would in turn keep her afloat and act as a floating dry dock so we could continue management and maintenance over a longer period of time, as well as offering 750 square metres of useable interior space.

“This has never been done before and it is an exemplar project for the conservation of historic ships in the future.”

For more information on SS Robin, visit www.ssrobin.org and www.kdclondon.com

London Marine Consultants

For over twenty years London Marine Consultants has specialised in the design and provision of mooring systems for FPSOs, FSRUs and FSOs. Additional services include third party reviews, field development studies and the provision of CALM buoys.

On the SS Robin project London Marine Consultants advised the Trust on numerous technical aspects related to lifting the vessel, ranging from the verification of the ship’s structural integrity to the provision of lift plans and refurbishment works.

London Marine Consultants Naval Architect, Vishnu Mukundan, said:

“Our involvement with the SS Robin was a refreshing change as it was quite different from the typical projects that we work on in the offshore sector.

“The SS Robin is the last of her kind in the UK and it is not every day that you get the opportunity to work on a project like this.”

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