A ship being launched from the yard seen from the Stockton bank of the River Tees. The shipyard was opened by Irving, Lane and Company in 1836 and taken over by Craig Taylors in 1884. The shipyard was then closed in 1931.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Not all ship launches in Stockton went as smoothly as this one. According to the Daily Gazette of 27 July 1877,an attempted launch of an iron screw steamer, christened the T.W Harris, at the yard of Messrs Pease and company, came to a halt whilst only half way down the slipway. Attempts to get it off completely failed and as the tide fell it was allowed to remain projecting nearly half way across the river. No information is given as to when they finally succeeded in floating her. The ship had been built for Messrs Dixon and Harris of London. Her statistics are given as length 280ft, breadth 33ft 6ins, gross tonnage 1,834 Tons. She was to be fitted with 220 horse power engines constructed by messrs Blair and Co.,stockton. At the time she was one of the largest ships launched on the Tees.