Robert Steele & Company

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]

Robert Steele II (1791-1879) portrait by Norman MacBeth, 1879 (Inverclyde Libraries, Museum and Inverclyde Archives)

Sir Lancelot (1865) tea clipper.

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. Howard, Mark. "Robert Steele and Company: Shipbuilders of Greenock" (PDF). The Northern Mariner. II (3). Canadian Nautical Research Society: 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.