Sale of Robin to a Cantonese merchant
HMS Robin was an 85-ton river gunboat built in 1897. She was still armed with two 6-pdr guns in 1925, and she had been sold in 1928 in Hong Kong. In 1930 the Admiralty consider a request by Whampoa Sam Co to re-sell the ex-British gunboat Robin to a Canton merchant for use as a houseboat. In view of the fact that the vessel had had her engines and armament removed, was over 30 years old, was only fit to be scrapped when sold three years previously, and the prospective owner was prepared to execute a bond that she will not be used as a mobile craft, it was considered most improbable that any power would consider the sale as an infringement of the Washington Treaty.