Decline of Shipbuilding on the Wear


Yes, lovely bloke is John. I still keep in touch, albeit not as frequently as I probably should. Did you work with him at Pallion?
eye he was my section leader at pallion. I was only just out of my time when the yards closed but worked with him at Amec for a few years after as well. As you say was always a nice Bloke
 
There'd been little investment into the yards even before Thatchers time..when i started at Pallion in 1980 there wasn't much in the way of orders..it's been mentioned on here about cheap Korean ships..well that's it in a nutshell..the Koreans and Japanese had the process of building ships like the way Nissan builds a car..like a moving line..over here it was like..the job will be done when it's done..nothing was timed..although they were trying to bring 'time and motion' in just before they closed..my nine years in the yards..poor training..antiquated machinery and poor working practices..the working practices is something i never realised until i worked in different places where they'd kind of adopted the Korean/Japanese methods..the yards had a good run and were great for the city but they just didn't move with the times quickly enough..near the end like i say they were doing 'time and motion' studies and introduced interchangeability where a welder could do a bit plating and a plater vice versa..all too little too late..the amalgamated NESL..Austin and Pickersgill and Sunderland Shipbuilders..was losing one million pounds a week when the yards closed..even two years before they shut there was an inevitability about it.
I also thought that the competition could build larger ships and that the geography of the Wear wasn’t suited to this?
 
Cost and national subsidy from competitors
Koreans Norwegian etc
This, every country in the world subsidised their ship building industries, even with subsidies ours weren't competitive. I believe Sunderland designed ships were still being built under license in other countries long after our yards closed.
 
Except for Doxfords being rebuilt in 1975.

The dry dock was an innovation but the buildings themselves are just corrugated boxes..nowt flash about them..the antiquated machinery and working practices were the big issue.
I also thought that the competition could build larger ships and that the geography of the Wear wasn’t suited to this?

Yeah good point..Pallion and Pickies were limited because of their position on the river..Deptford I seem to recall launched a couple of 70,000 (approx) tonne ships..North Sands launched the Challenger.
 
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I also thought that the competition could build larger ships and that the geography of the Wear wasn’t suited to this?
I also thought that the competition could build larger ships and that the geography of the Wear wasn’t suited to this?

The company I work for supply into Korean yards and I’ve been site based on several projects in DSME, SHI and HHI. Not only are they far better equipped than we are, they also have less of a tidal disadvantage. It’s not uncommon for the variance of sea level in north east yards to be 6m to 7m. Twice daily. The seas around Korea are nearer 2m max.
This alone cannot be understated in terms of the varying environmental conditions needed to build ships. The difference in cost make the locations over there for more attractive. And that’s before we discus labour rates and the price of steel.
 
The dry dock was an innovation but the buildings themselves are just corrugated boxes..nowt flash about them..the antiquated machinery and working practices were the big issue.

But it was significant investment and it took a long time to do.
 
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Not really about the decline, but my nana had a great book called “Where Ships are Born”. It had all the history of the yards and some of the main folk involved. A lot of the streets in Southwick are named after some of the high profile engineers e.g. Goschen, Hahnneman etc.

I was supposed to get the book when she passed, but it got skipped. Not that I’m bitter about it.
Did you buy a replacement book? Obviously it won’t have the sentimental factor.

 

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