Robin

[Mark-1]

Apparently the oldest original steam ship in the world.

Unfortunately that originality has been achieved by keeping it out of the water in recent years.

 

[dunedin]

Good to see it having been restored. But with 1890 build date, seems to be a lot of debate over whether it is really the “oldest steamboat in the world” - or just oldest steamboat of that particular type.
Various other candidates for much older steamships, including SS Great Britain at 1843, and a still operating boat in Norway from 1856.

 

[Mark-1]

Good to see it having been restored. But with 1890 build date, seems to be a lot of debate over whether it is really the “oldest steamboat in the world” - or just oldest steamboat of that particular type.
Various other candidates for much older steamships, including SS Great Britain at 1843, and a still operating boat in Norway from 1856.

SS GB doesn't have it's original engine. Or any engine IIRC. But yeah, these "in the world" claims always come with a shed load of caveats.

 

[dunedin]

SS GB doesn't have its original engine. Or any engine IIRC. But yeah, these "in the world" claims always come with a shed load of caveats.

Yes SS Robin did have a decent engine fitted - hull built in London but towed up to Dundee to have an engine fitted there.

 

[Poignard]

Some time in the 1970s I was in one of Jebsen's bulk carriers, the 'Bernes', when we bought a cargo of pig iron from a West Australian port to Shnghai.

The river there was like a maritime museum, sailing junks and old coal-fired steamships with tall thin funnels. I don't know exactly how old some of the old steamships were but, going by appearances, they must have been about the same age as 'Robin'.

 

[dombuckley]

Good to see it having been restored. But with 1890 build date, seems to be a lot of debate over whether it is really the “oldest steamboat in the world” - or just oldest steamboat of that particular type.
Various other candidates for much older steamships, including SS Great Britain at 1843, and a still operating boat in Norway from 1856.

Yes, a highly questionable claim.

There are several older ships, still with their original engines and actually in commission, rather than static preservation on a pontoon: PS Hero in Australia dates from 1874, with a near sister PS Adelaide dating from 1866, while the Danish paddlesteamer Hjejlen dates from 1861. The Norwegian Skibladner and the Hungarian Tudor Vladimirescu both date from the 1850s: they do not have their original engines, but even their "new" engines are older than Robin.