- The Earnslaw carried the Duke of York in 1927 and the Duke of Gloucester in 1935.
- In March 1990, the Earnslaw carried Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip.
- Other royalty to travel on board have been the King and Queen of Belgium, the Prince of Thailand, the Emperor and Empress of Japan.
- The TSS Earnslaw made a brief cameo appearance in the movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) as an Amazon River boat.
- The TSS Earnslaw uses 1 tonne of coal every hour
- Parts of the TSS Earnslaw were used as the basis for the SS Venture, the steamship in the movie King Kong.
- The TSS Earnslaw was launched in the same year as the RMS Titanic in 1912.
- Former president Bill Clinton travelled on board the TSS Earnslaw in 1999.
- The TSS Earnslaw travels 1.5 times the circumference of the earth each year. Not bad for a 100 year old steamship!
- TSS stands for Twin Screw Steamship
- Famous composer Ron Goodwin composed a piece of music inspired by the rhythm of the TSS Earnslaw’s engines. It was first performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
- The TSS Earnslaw inspired the illustrated children’s story book Pot the dragon by Brian High. Pot will be 24 years old in 2012.
- The TSS Earnslaw is the first and only vessel in New Zealand to be classified as a Heritage One under a District plan
