John A. Robb

John Alexander Robb (June 1, 1792 – January 28, 1867), was a 19th-century shipbuilder at Fell's Point, Baltimore.

Abolitionist Frederick Douglass, as a young man, worked at the John A. Robb shipyard as a caulker for several years.

[3] Robb established a shipyard in Fell's Point, Baltimore on Thames Street, next to the Patapsco River, which flows into the Chesapeake Bay.

At this shipyard, he built most of his vessels including ships, steamships, brigs and pilot boats (see list below).

[3][4][1] Howard I. Chapelle, in his book The Search For Speed Under Sail, identified boats connected with the slave trade and built at John A Robb's shipyard at Fells Point, while Douglass was working there.

[5][6] On July 4, 1828, Robb acquired payment provided by the Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland Steamboat Company for the best model of a steam boat.

[7] On July 19, 1837, John A. Robb & Co. built a steam dredge boat for the United States Government for deepening the harbor at Ocracoke, North Carolina.

She was lost off Cape Lookout on the coast of North Carolina in 1838, in what was called the Steamship Pulaski disaster, when her starboard boiler exploded.

He was a prominent member of the Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York and belonged to the Burns Club.