The River Tyne "Shipbuilding & Launches"

The North East once had a strong shipbuilding tradition, producing ships that made the region famous around the world.

Shipbuilding's boom years came in the early 20th century stimulated by the build up of demand for warships and ship repair yards. Then came the steepest slump on record, with heavy job losses and unemployment not just in the North East, but throughout the country. By the mid 1920s, the unemployment rate in the shipyards was over nearly 50%.

The Second World War once again brought prosperity followed by a brief revival in the 1950s but this was short lived. From the early 1960s the yards struggled to find work with a lack of orders and increasing competition.

The Swan Hunter yard in Newcastle was originally part of the Neptune shipyard founded at Low Walker in 1860. The yard's first ship was the Victoria, a paddle steamer launched in the same year.

In 1880 Swan Hunter became a business, and launched ships that became famous worldwide including the Mauretania, the 'queen of the ocean', which was launched in Wallsend in 1906.

The yard went on to build the Carpathia in 1912, which braved icebergs to rescue the survivors of the Titanic, and the Dominion Monarch, the largest diesel motor driven ship in the world when completed in 1939.

In the late 1960s Swan Hunter built eight super-tankers including the Esso Northumbria, the first new-style super-tanker in 1969.

Swans also went on to produce modern day aircraft carriers like the HMS Ark Royal and the HMS Illustrious in the 1980s.

At its peak the yard employed 3,000 men but competition from abroad increased, resulting in job losses and periods of stagnation.

In May 1993 the receivers were called in and job losses of over 2,000 were announced. In the mid 1990s Swan Hunter Tyneside was formed.

In this DVD we see archive footage from the past and see exactly how shipbuilding was on the River Tyne.

 Witness the great days and events.