Relive a piece of history with the LEGO® SS Rotterdam

07 desember 2021

That you can build amazing things with LEGO® we already knew of course. Every week we see fantastic, creative buildings that we love to share with you. However, sometimes we find extra special and cool buildings that we have to bow down to. Today, we are going to show you one. In this article we are going to talk about the SS Rotterdam, a huge cruise ship with a rich history, and its LEGO® counterpart. Check out the video below for a more beautiful recreation of the ship and a fun mini-documentary!

In the 1930s almost all the rich countries in the world were involved in an international shipbuilding race. Everyone tried to build the biggest, fastest and most luxurious ship, so that the country could show off and increase its status. The Netherlands and Holland America Line succeeded quite well with the SS Nieuw Amsterdam, but the idea soon arose to build a second ship. This idea was halted by the Second World War, but when the Nieuw Amsterdam still proved to be very profitable in the 1950s, the plan was implemented after all. On 14 December 1956, the construction of the ship, which would eventually cost almost 25 million guilders, began. Just under two years later, 60,000 people would attend her launch and so the SS Rotterdam was born.

The SS Rotterdam is 228 metres long, 29 metres wide and 50 metres high. In addition, the ship weighed 38,645 tonnes. As you can imagine, it was quite a job to get her safely into the water. After 41 years in service, the SS Rotterdam officially sailed her last voyage in 2000. Today, she lies in the harbour of Rotterdam and serves as a hotel and museum. So although her sailing days are over, she can still be admired!

LEGO® Boats MOCs and loose parts

At ToyPro we think this kind of building is very cool and we recommend you to watch the whole video. We also advise our readers who found this interesting and like a bit of history, to read our article about the LEGO® Glomar Explorer RC Ship. If you also like to build your own LEGO® boats, we at ToyPro have a lot to help you out. Besides that we write about a lot of nice MOC's, like the LEGO® 31107 alternate fishing boat or the LEGO® sunken pirate ship MOC, you can also find a lot of LEGO® parts for boats in our web shop. So take a look around on our site and start building soon!

Did you like this article and would you like to read more of this kind of LEGO® news? Then follow our Facebook page and subscribe to the ToyPro newsletter. That way we can tell you all the latest LEGO® news, so you can stay fully informed about the newest sets, builds, minifigures, parts and activities of our favourite pastime!

Light up your LEGO® sets!

Discover all Lightailing light sets here