Changing Tide - The Final Years of Wear Shipbuilding

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Changing Tide - The Final Years of Wear Shipbuilding

Book published by Sunderland and Hartlepool Publishing in 1990, 94 pages. Large Rectangular Paperback - c.21cm by 29cm (S6961).

This book provides a fascinating history of the Sunderland shipyards and shipbuilding along the River Wear, and covers the period from the start of the Second World War up until the late 1980's, when the last shipyards closed and shipbuilding stopped altogether. The book is illustrated throughout with lots of photographs, many full page, showing the shipyards of the River Wear, the men who worked their and the ships they built, and sections include

The Wear at War
Post War Changes
The Sound of Success
Nationalisation
Crisis of 1986
Fight for Survival
NESL and Closure
The Last Launch
Ferries
Built with pride
Loss of a driving force
End of another era
last of the Dredging fleet
the cost of shipbuilding

From the introduction: The Wear gave birth to Sunderland. Along its banks the first dwellings were built and communities became established... and ships and shipbuilding became the dominant industry of the Wear for over 650 years. At the turn of the 20th century shipbuilding and related industries employed more than 20,000 people and around two fifths of Sunderland's entire male labour force. But in December 1988, when the workforce had been reduced over many years to less than 2,000 the shipyards finally closed.... the luftwaffe bombs did not destroy the industry on the Wear. It fell victim to a government's view of economics.

This book aims to capture in words and pictures the spirit of the shipyards and the people who worked in them...

Condition of the book is generally very good. The cover has one or two very minor scuffs, and some light nibbling along the edges, but the spine is tight and intact, and all pages are clean, intact, unblemished and tightly bound.

Condition

New