River Wear and Cretehawser - a photo on Flickriver

            On Saturday, 9 May 2020, not having had the camera out since the coronavirus lockdown started, I thought I would take it with me on my daily walk, and took a few photos around the Northern Spire bridge just along the road. From a personal perspective, photography-wise, I feel as though I've done the bridge to death, so I decided to concentrate on the Cretehawser, a concrete tugboat (yes, really) that has been beached on the south bank of the Wear since long before I was born.

The steam tug Cretehawser was launched on 15 March 1919. Built by the Wear Concrete Building Company Ltd, it was the first of a Ministry Of Shipping order for eight such tugs designed to tow large concrete barges carrying iron ore from northern Spain to Britain. The decision to build using concrete can only be understood against a backdrop of crippling merchant shipping losses from enemy action, particularly submarines, during the First World War, and it was assumed that building with concrete, using new materials and construction techniques, would not take skilled manpower and scarce resources (such as iron plates) away from established shipyards. It was also assumed that concrete tugs and barges would prove to be cheap to build but, in fact, the average cost of a concrete barge turned out to be thirty-seven percent more than the equivalent in steel.

Five such vessels had been built by the time the Armistice curtailed the programme, but only Cretehawser proved to be a survivor. By 1935, she had reached the end of her commercial life and was sold to the South Stockton Shipping Company Ltd for scrap. The resulting hulk was later bought by The River Wear Commissioners and moored in Sunderland's South Dock as an emergency breakwater. After being holed during a 1942 air raid, Cretehawser was towed upriver and beached not far from where she was built. Some sixty years later, Cretehawser's future appeared to be in doubt when Sunderland City Council redeveloped the riverbank, but her importance was recognised and she still lies on the inter-tidal mud beneath Claxheugh Rock, proof of the durability, if not the success, of concrete ships.

Taken in: UK / England / Pallion (show map)

Taken on: May 9, 2020

Tags:

Nikon

D5600

Sunderland

River

Wear

Cretehawser

concrete

boat

18-55

18-55mm

18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR « less

Sets appears in: • All • Landscape more » • North • Sunderland « less

Groups appears in: • Nikon Digital • England more » • Angels of the North • Amateurs • Nikkor • North East of England • Great Britain • Cool Britannia - The Best of British on Flickr • NIKON PROFESSIONAL • Pictures Of England • 'What Digital Camera' flickr group • Land of the Prince Bishops • Nikon Digital Learning Center • Nik Software Photo Share • North East England Photographers Group • Celebrate North East England • Images Of England • This Is County Durham • ilovenortheastengland • Nikon Europe Group • Pro Landscape Photography • Digital Camera World • Landscapes Only • Amazing scenery • Amateur Photographer Magazine • Nikon AF-P DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR • Nikon D5600 « less

Camera: Nikon D5600, f/8.0, 1/320 sec, 55mm (=82mm), ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D5600
Lens:	18.0-55.0 mm f/3.5-5.6
Aperture:	f/8.0
Exposure Time:	0.003 sec (1/320)
Focal Length:	55mm (35mm equivalent: 82mm)
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6.14 (Windows)
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