Ready to strive for a whole new industry

May 27 2009 By Peter McCusker, The Journal

THE sound of rivets being hammered into place resounds around the banks of the Tyne once more. Peter McCusker reports on the rennaissance of a once great industry.

Heavy industry on the River Tyne

The industrialisation of the River Tyne began in the early 1800s with the emergence of the North East coal industry and the building of the staithes to enable coal to be exported around the world.

As the iron and steel industry emerged in the middle part of the century, the river became a hub for making ships and armoury.

In the 1900s, the river built on its reputation for shipbuilding, including the Cunard express liner Mauritania and the Esso Northumbria.

One of the last major ships it produced in the late 1960s was the Esso Northumbria, known as Big Geordie, but the river was not big enough to make any more supertankers.

For a while the construction of oil and gas platforms took the place of shipbuilding.

Jaap Kroese revived the Wallsend yards when his company bought Swan Hunter in 1994 with hopes of bringing thousands of jobs and multi-billion pound deals to build aircraft carriers. The work did not come as plentifully as he hoped and the last ship left half-finished.

Companies such as Duco, Wellstream and SMD had, meanwhile, become world-leaders in helping oil companies extract reserves from under the sea. It is estimated that this subsea sector now employs 10,000 people in the region.

In 2009, signs that the river will develop as a hub for the renewable energy are emerging with Shepherd Offshore developing two former shipyards, and south of the river McNulty landing a major renewable contract.