Robert Steele & Company

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Robert Steele II (1791-1879) portrait by Norman MacBeth, 1879 (Inverclyde Libraries, Museum and Inverclyde Archives)
Sir Lancelot (1865) tea clipper.

Robert Steele & Company was a shipbuilder based in Greenock, Scotland, formed in 1815 by Robert Steele (1745-1830) and two sons. It followed dissolution of an earlier shipbuilding partnership between Robert Steele and John Carswell, known as "Steele and Carswell."[1]

The first vessel the company built was the three-masted barque Rebecca.[1] The company was one of the shipbuilders credited with the development of the four-masted barque along with Alexander Stephen and Sons.[2]

Clipper ship Hesperus (1874).

The company built twenty China tea clippers, many of which won China Tea Races.[1]

The following are some of the Tea Clippers built by Robert Steele and company:

Vessel Name Material Owners / Agents Date Built Period Owned Net Tonnage Length Overall (feet) Breadth (feet) Depth(feet)
Ariel Composite Shaw, Lowther & Maxton 1865 1865-1872 853 197.4 33.9 21
Chinaman Composite 1865 668
Ellen Rodger Wooden Alexander Rodger & Co 1858 1858-1866 585 155,8 29.4 19.5
Falcon Wooden Phillips, Shaw & Lowther 1859 1859-1900 794 191.4 32.2 20
Guinevere 1862 647
Kaisow Composite Alexander Rodger 1868 1868-1891 820 193.2 32 20.3
Kate Carnie Wooden Alexander Rodger & C. Carnie 1855 1855-1889 576 148.4 26 19
King Arthur Iron 1862 699
Lahloo Composite Alexander Rodger & Co 1867 1867- 1872 799 191.6 32.9 19.9
Min Wooden Alexander Rodger & Co 1861 1861-1891 629 174.5 29.8 19.3
Serica Composite James Findlay 1863 1863-1872 708 185.9 31.1 19.6
Sir Lancelot Composite John McCunn 1865 1865-1895 886 197.6 33.7 21
Taeping Composite Alexander Rodger 1863 1863-1871 767 183 31.1 19.9
Titania Composite Shaw, Lowther, Maxton & Co 1866 1866-1910 879 200 36 21
Wylo Composite Killick Martin & Company 1869 1869-1886 829 192.9 32.1 20.2
Young Lochinvar 724


From 1854 the company started building iron ships, such as Irish ferry, ss Mangerton, an 1855 Robert Steele steamship,[3] which struck wooden barque Josephine Willis in 1856

References[]

  1. ^ a b c Howard, Mark. "Robert Steele and Company: Shipbuilders of Greenock" (PDF). The Northern Mariner. Canadian Nautical Research Society. II (3): 17–29. Retrieved 18 September 2016.
  2. ^ Nick Robins (21 January 2014). Scotland and the Sea: The Scottish Dimension in Maritime History. Seaforth Publishing. pp. 93–. ISBN 978-1-4738-3441-5.
  3. ^ "Shipyards: Robert Steele & Co". www.bruzelius.info. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
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