The Rise and Fall of the Largest Shipbuilding Town on Earth: Sunderland

In 1840, seventy-six shipyards lined a single river in a town most of England had never heard of. Between them, they were building a third of every ship in the United Kingdom. By 1988, the last vessel slid from the last slipway, and six thousand men walked home for the final time. This is the story of Sunderland, the largest shipbuilding town on earth, and how six centuries of industry vanished within a single generation. From the shallow, coal-choked river that Newcastle tried to keep irrelevant, to the iron bridge that was the biggest in the world, to the wartime yards that built twenty-seven per cent of Britain's merchant fleet, to the parliamentary deal that shut them down for good. Today, the names of eight thousand ships are cut into a strip of granite in the middle of the city. The line is exactly as long as the last great ship the river ever produced. Sources: Smith, J.W. and Holden, T.S., Where Ships Are Born: Sunderland 1346–1946 (Thomas Reed & Co., 1946). Sunderland City Council Local Studies Centre, "Shipbuilding on the Wear: Part 1" and "Part 2," Fact Sheets No. 10 and 11. Available at: https://www.sunderland.gov.uk/article... Hansard, House of Commons Debate, "North East Shipbuilders Ltd," 7 December 1988, and "British Shipbuilders," 14 December 1988. Available at: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons... Grace's Guide to British Industrial History, "Sunderland Shipyards," "William Doxford and Sons," and "Joseph L. Thompson and Sons." Available at: https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Sunderl... Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, Sunderland Shipbuilding Photographic Collections, including the Naess Crusader and Nicola (SD14) construction records. Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/twm_new... Broadbent Studio, "Propellers of the City: Keel Square, Sunderland" (2015). Available at: https://broadbent.studio/propellers-o... Robinson, Alistair, Sunderland Empire: A History of the Theatre and Its Stars (City of Sunderland, 2000).