SS Robin's 130th Birthday, Corona & Open House London

SS Robin arriving back in UK waters in 1974 following retirement and 84 years of sailing service.  130 years young in September 2020!

Dear Friends and Supporters,

The last 3 years have seen our world change in ways we could never imagine or foresee as a result of Covid 19.

Many maritime and other heritage organisations have had to put their plans on hold in these difficult times and SS Robin Trust is no exception. Understandably we have not been able to host visits onboard since the start of the epidemic, but we are working to reopen as soon as possible and carry over events planned for 2020 into the coming year.

 Good news is that SS Robin has survived to celebrate a big Birthday, having been launched in August and fitted out in September 1890. A grand old lady of world renown importance is now 130 years of age!

SS Robin loading cargo in Scotland five years after launching.

Just before March the Trust was delighted to receive a substantial financial donation via a long standing supporter who had passed away. The bequest should make a significant contribution to the remaining restoration and refurbishment works planned to SS Robin's interior. Particularly engine, boiler rooms and crew accommodation spaces. The executors have asked that the donor remains anonymous. We have expressed our thanks to them and the family concerned.

We were hoping to host an exciting new exhibition 'Cargo 2020' in SS Robin's huge cargo hold this year to allow the ship to be opened regularly to visitors as part of an international co-operative event involving artist Dominique Pinchi and his work 'The Shield of Achilles' on loan from Venice, Italy which would also involve local schools, artists and musicians in the Royal Docks areas. Much preparation was done; with improving access to the hold, working with local schools, shipping the art installation over and bringing a new volunteer team together to help manage and promote the event and SS Robin as a whole. Frustratingly for all involved we had no choice except to stop works once the events of March overtook us!

Hopefully we will carry on in 2021 launching in the spring or summer. Full details for what we hope will become a changing annual event onboard can be found on our website under 'Cargo 2020' - 'The Shield of Achilles'.

 Link Here: http://ssrobin.com/cargo-2020

Some of SS Robin's younger participants to Cargo 2020 at the nearby Faraday School earlier this year. Children have been producing music, poetry, art and sculpture to link in with the project.

Sadly plans for SS Robin to be open as part of the summers 'Newham Unlocked Festival' for heritage, community and local arts has had to be shelved. Hopefully it will be carried into next year.

Amazingly Open House London is taking place on 19th & 20th September this month and SS Robin has been invited to take part. The ship will be open to a small number of visitors on each day who will have an appropriately socially distanced tour, taking around an hour. The free tickets for this event went quickly and we had to reduce the numbers available following changes to legislation by the Government soon after.
 
All places are now fully booked and online booking is closed. Over 480 people requested a tour of the ship.  Given this very encouraging level of interest we plan to offer further tours over the coming months. In the first case for those who there has not been space for at Open House.
 
We hope that everyone reading this are keeping well and safe in these strange times. Hopefully we will see many of you onboard next year.

Thank you as ever for your kind support and interest!

The SS Robin and Team.