SS Robert Coryndon

Career
Name: SS Robert Coryndon
Namesake: Sir Robert Coryndon, Governor of Uganda 1918–22
Operator: Kenya and Uganda Railways and Harbours (1930–48); East African Railways and Harbours Corporation (1948–67)
Port of registry:
Route: fortnightly between Butiaba on Lake Albert and Kasenyi on Lake George[1]
Builder: J.I. Thornycroft & Co, Woolston, England
In service: 1930
Fate: sunk by 1964
Status: wreck
General characteristics
Type: passenger & cargo ferry
Tonnage: 860 tons[2]
Propulsion: steam engine; screw

SS Robert Coryndon was a British passenger and cargo ferry on Lake Albert in central Africa.

John I. Thornycroft & Company at Woolston, Hampshire built her for Kenya and Uganda Railways and Harbours in 1930.[3] She was named after the South African Sir Robert Coryndon, who was Governor of Uganda 1918–22.[4] She was part of a plan for a network of railway, river steamer and lake steamer services linking British interests in Egypt, East Africa and southern Africa. Sir Winston Churchill described the ship as "the best library afloat" and Ernest Hemingway called her "magnificence on water".[4]

Robert Coryndon was lost around the time of Ugandan independence from Britain. She either was scuttled in 1962[5] or sank in 1964.[4] EAR&H offered her wreck for sale in 1967.[2] However, by the first decade of the 21st century she was still unsalvaged and partly submerged in the lake.[4][5]

References