One time Cobbs tied house. Cobbs were founded in 1673, but Whitbread took them over early 1968 and closed the brewery later that year.
In 1889 the "Pier Hotel" next door suffered a fire and the "Ship" was damaged by heat and water as did the shops to the rear of the building. At this time the address was 1 The Parade.
Early 1900's, Thomas John Brierley Jephcott -1907) was occupying manager. He was also the Local Hon Secretary of the RNLI. One of his adverts states The Ship as '....being in a splendid position which it occupies, facing the jetty and within three minutes walk of either railway station, renders it a favourite resort of Margate habitués. Its fine bold corner frontage, overlooking a wide expanse of seascape, with the ever moving panorama of shipping passing up and down the channel, contributed in no small degree to the pleasantness and healthfulness of the situation...'.
The last licensee Henry John Bretton, sold the building to the Margate Corporation. The Ship was the last building to be demolished as part of the Fort Road Improvement Scheme between December 1937 and April 1939, when the present Fort Road dual carriageway was constructed. The removal of the "Ship Inn" and the "Hotel Metropole" left a yawning gap in central Margate’s accommodation facilities, so the holiday trade shifted to Cliftonville. <1>

Ordinance Survey, 1872, Margate - Kent XXV 4_17 (Map). SKE56389.

<1> Dover Kent Archives, 2024, The Ship Hotel, Margate (Website). SKE57137.