Then and Now: A ship launch at Wallsend on the River Tyne - and the much-changed view today

A ship launch on the River Tyne - a now-vanished sight, but a relatively frequent occurrence 60 years ago.

Our photograph shows the oil tanker Ottawa on June 10, 1964, immediately after gracefully sliding into the water. The giant vessel was under construction at Wallsend’s Swan Hunter shipyard.

The Tyne was still a working industrial river, as it had been for 100 years and more, busy with shipbuilding, ship repair, engineering and the manufacture of chemicals, paint, lead, bricks and suchlike. Few could have imagined that within just a few decades, much of that industry and the day-to-day way of life which surrounded it would be consigned to history, and the river would be a much quieter place.

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At a massive 850 feet long and 125 feet wide, the sheer size of the Ottowa heralded the even bigger so-called supertankers which were built on the Tyne during the late 1960s into the 1970s. Completed in December 1964, the Ottowa sailed until 1978 when it was converted into an oil storage vessel sited off Indonesia. In 1990, the ship was taken to Alang in India where it was broken up, 36 years after its launch on Tyneside nearly 4,500 miles away.

Our striking main image, published courtesy of Tyne & Wear Archives, was taken across the river from Wallsend, from the top of a mountainous ballast hill in Hebburn. The well-known local landmark was the product of ships dumping thousands of tonnes of the stuff at the spot during previous decades.

The ballast - mostly salt and gravel - was used to stabilise vessels before they were replenished with their outgoing cargo, usually coal. The giant mound is long-gone - today it’s the site of modern housing. Nearby Hawthorn Leslie, Hebburn’s own notable shipyard, is also gone.

As for Swan Hunter, the brand was famous the world over - a shipyard founded in 1880 that was synonymous with Tyneside's role as a vibrant industrial powerhouse. Its skilled workforce built more than 1,600 ships at yards in Wallsend and Walker during the company’s lifetime.

Famous vessels included the luxury liner Mauretania, which in 1909 crossed the Atlantic Ocean in record time winning the Blue Riband - and the RMS Carpathia, which rescued survivors from the Titanic after it sank in 1912. Swan’s ships which fought in World War II included HMS Sheffield, which too part in the 1941 sinking of the mighty German battleship, Bismarck.

The late 1960s into the 1970s saw the launch of a series of supertankers including the Esso Northumbria, Tyne Pride and World Unicorn, the biggest vessels ever built on the river. The aircraft carriers, Ark Royal and Illustrious, were also constructed by Swans - the latter finally being decommissioned in 2014.

The 1980s and ‘90s moving into the new millennium were a time that was immensely challenging for UK shipbuilding, and Swans went through different business configurations. The last vessel to be built and completed at the yard was the Largs Bay in 2007.

A year later, the Chronicle reported on the end of a Tyneside era when the Swan Hunter cranes which for generations had dominated the Wallsend skyline and come to symbolise industry on the River Tyne were dismantled and sent halfway across the world after being sold to an Indian shipbuilder.