Sunderland Was the Biggest Shipbuilding Town in the World...
By the 1600's the port had come to life, the commercial town of Sunderland had
started it's career. The actions of Robert Bowes and John Smith had transformed
Sunderland from little more than a fishing village into a scene of commercial
endeavour, and it's character was changed permanently. An indication of this
change is the amount of coal being exported. In the 1590's an average of 2/3000
tons annually was shipped from the Wear, however in 1608 to 1609 some 14,700
tons were exported and in subsequent years the quantity continued rising
significantly.
The local historian George Garbutt wrote in 1819 'In shipbuilding the port of
Sunderland stands at present the highest of any in the United Kingdom'. By 1851
the port had more than 1,000 vessels, so clearly the new ships required also
added substantially to local shipbuilding output and many ship owners from other
ports bought their vessels at Sunderland.
The war had a dramatic effect on Sunderland's shipyards. At the beginning of
1939 only four yards were open and there were only nine contracts in hand, but
orders subsequently flooded in. New workers were taken on and idle yards once
again reverberated with the sounds of shipbuilding. Read More
