A PIECE of history from the North East’s famous shipyards has been rescued and preserved for future generations.
For more than 50 years and over 170 ship launches, a host of VIPS signed this shipyard’s visitors’ book.
But when Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson’s Neptune Yard on the Tyne closed, the leather book ended up in rubbish skip.
It was retrieved by a man who sold it to former merchant seaman Trevor Ashman, from Warkworth in Northumberland.
Mr Ashman put the book up for sale at Boldon Auction Galleries in South Tyneside, and it has now been bought for £310 by Tyne Wear Archives and Museums.
They already own a similar volume from the neighbouring Swan Hunter Wallsend yard, and now the new visitors book will take pride of place in their collection.
It records visitors and launches from 1910 to 1963, and also contains watercolour paintings of flags and crests of the vessels.
In some cases there are scenes or figures representing the ship’s name.
Mr Ashman, who went on to have a career of more than 30 years in the fire service, said: “It is a remarkable, one-off book which is an important piece of North East history.
“It was found in a skip by a man I knew when the Neptune Yard closed. Because of my time in the merchant navy I am interested in the sea and maritime items and I bought it from him.”
One of the signatures is of Susan Mary Auld – born Susan Denham Christie in Tynemouth – who was the first woman to graduate as a naval architect from Durham University.
She designed battleships for the Royal Navy and the floating vessels used to land Allied troops in France on D-Day in 1944.
In 1903, Swan Hunter merged with the adjacent Wigham Richardson yard specifically to bid for the prestigious contract to build the Mauretania liner. Visitor books were kept for both the Swans and Wigham yards.
Ian Whitehead, keeper of maritime history at Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums, said: “The book is a significant piece of Tyne shipbuilding history and it is really good that we now have the visitor books from both yards.”
The launch page for the MS Bamburgh Castle in 1959 is decorated with a painting of the castle and beach, while a Roman soldier illustrates the launch of the Border Sentinel in 1955.
The 1944 launch of HMS Bullfrog is accompanied by a painting of the creature. The ship is now serving as the Roaring Forties floating restaurant in Simonstown in South Africa.
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