BOOK REVIEW
The rise and demise of Swan Hunter Review by E C Tupper
Swan Hunter Built Warships, by Ian Buxton, published by Maritime Books as a hardback, 2007, 375 pp. ISBN 978-1-904459-29-3, £17.99.
T
he author is well known as a naval architect and as a professor at Newcastle University. His
interest in warships and shipbuilding spans 50 years. Having lived on Tyneside for much of his professional career he has seen the many changes at the Swan Hunter Shipyards. He is an active member of RINA and continues to lecture at Newcastle University. He is a vice- president of the World Ship Society. The book has four pages outlining
the rather complex history of the Swan Hunter Shipyards from initial opening, through nationalisation and subsequent privatisation, to its final demise as a shipbuilding facility. Tere are more than 120 full page black and white photographs depicting the various warships built there. Charles S Swan began to build ships at
Wallsend in 1874. He drowned in 1879 and George Hunter was invited to manage the company which became C S Swan and Hunter. Te yard began building floating docks in the 1890s and this led, in 1900, to an Admiralty order for a floating dock for Bermuda which was completed in 1902. In 1903 the company merged with Wigham Richardson to form Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd (SHWR). It also took a majority interest in the Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Co Ltd (WSE) who built much of the machinery for the ships. As a Quaker, John Richardson was
opposed to building warships and it was not until aſter his death in 1908 that SHWR entered the warship building market. Te first contract was for a 755-ton destroyer – HMS Hope. Ordered in September 1909, Hope was delivered in March 1911. A succession of destroyer orders followed. Te outbreak of the Great War led to large warship building programme and by the
The Naval Architect April 2008
end of 1914 SHWR had orders for one 14-inch monitor, six destroyers, and three submarines. Over the years the shipyard built some 217 warships including a battleship (HMS Anson) and a number of cruisers and carriers and five submarines. Te warship which was to carry the last yard number in the original SHWR series was the guided missile destroyer HMS Bristol. Intended as the first of a class to escort the new carrier she was the only one built to this design aſter the carrier was cancelled. Being the first design to
“The author outlines the complex history of the company through mergers with other yards, the creation of British Shipbuilders, and then privatisation.”
carry the Seadart and Exocet missile systems she was completed to carry out comprehensive trials of these weapons. The author outlines the rather
complex history of the company through mergers with other yards in the area, the creation of British Shipbuilders, and then privatisation. It became known as Swan Hunter Shipbuilders Ltd (SHS) in 1969. Due to financial troubles the receivers were called in in May 1993 and the shipyard and all its equipment were auctioned in June 1995. Tis followed the completion of three frigates – HMS Westminster, HMS Northumberland, and HMS Richmond. Now known as Swan Hunter (Tyneside) Ltd the yard became involved in offshore work. However, the firm gained an order for two Landing Platform Ships at the end of 2000. Te price and build time was overly optimistic and only one ship was completed. Te second was towed away to be completed elsewhere. In late 2006 the company announced that it was selling its cranes and much of its shipbuilding plant. As the author says: ‘Altogether a sad
end to a proud heritage of shipbuilding on the River Tyne’. NA
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