Fifyt Years' Progress in Marine and General Engineering: Jubilee of the North-East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders

Abstract

OF the various industrial districts around the coasts of Great Britain, none has a greater variety of industries than that known as the ‘North-East Coast’. Here, situated on the banks of the Tyne, the Wear and the Tees are coal-wharves, ship-yards, engine-shops, steel-works and factories by the score. But the outstanding industries are shipbuilding and marine engineering, and ships built or engined at Wallsend, Elswick, Hebburn, Shields, Sunderland or Hartlepool are found all over the world. As compared with the Thames, the Mersey and the Clyde in the early days of steamships, the district occupied a minor position as a shipbuilding centre. About the middle of last century, however, it began to specialise in the building of economical slow cargo ships, and its success in this direction led to developments which perhaps are as remarkable as they were unexpected. In 1850, the depth at low water over the bar at the mouth of the Tyne was only 6 ft. Now the channel of the river is dredged to more than thirty feet, and into the river have been launched such vessels as the Mauretania and H.M.S. Nelson. To-day, ships of many classes and marine engines of every type are constructed in the district.