Shipbuilders Swan Hunter have probably built their last ship following a government decision to remove two naval vessels for completion elsewhere because of massive cost overruns and time delays. The yard's future is now likely to lie in ship-breaking rather than ship-building.
Famous ships such as the Mauretania, once the largest ship in the world and which held the coveted Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic crossing, the Carpathia which rescued the survivors from the Titanic and HMS Ark Royal the current flagship of the Royal Navy were all built at their Wallsend yard.
In the early 1970s they produced several 'supertankers' which, during construction, towered over the adjacent terraced houses. (See pictures below by Norman Dunn. click to enlarge)
2 comments:
Thanks for a great post that brought back memories of my youth. I was born and brought up in Wallsend (so can classify myself as a fellow "Geordie in Exile") and can remember some great ships being built and launched from the Swan Hunter yard. In fact I was moved to write a blog post of my own and, hoping you don't mind, I pointed to your Norman Dunn photograph.
Hi Steve, lovely to hear from you ; my blog has been dormant for some time now…. I’ll take a look at yours, kind regards, CB
Post a Comment