TALES of graceful liners, giant supertankers and humble but hardworking colliers all feature in a new documentary on the history of shipping on a “mighty” North-East river.

Using rare and previously unseen archive footage – some of which has never been broadcast before – the film is a nostalgic look back at the heyday of shipbuilding on the River Tyne.

Now available on DVD, Shipping on the Tyne includes stories of some of the 4,000 vessels built and launched on the river from the early 20th century onwards – and offers a tantalising glimpse of what might have been.

The 75 minute film is the 40th in the Great Liners series of documentaries made by Sussex-based Snowbow productions. The films have been a labour of love over 23 years for producer Des Cox, who has created the largest maritime archive in the world.

Mr Cox said: “We believe it to be important that today’s generation and future generations know just how great the Tyne and North-East was in the world of shipping.

“It really was a mega maritime stage – a place where thousands of ships were built, including some of the most famous ships ever to sail the oceans of the world.”

Among the famous ships featured in the film are Cunard’s Mauretania, built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson and launched on in September 1906, a day when “the whole of the Tyne erupted in an explosion of celebration”.

The liner went on to capture the Blue Riband for the fastest transatlantic crossing, a record which stood for 20 years.

Also featured is the Dominion Monarch, built over two years in the 1930s by Swan Hunter for the Shaw, Savill and Albion Line, which set a number of speed records as the fastest motor-driven ship in the world.

The film also features footage of several of the fondly remembered ‘Port Line’ ships – including The Port Brisbane, The Port Auckland and The Port Sydney

One of the most remarkable stories is that of the Eppleton Hall, a paddle tug built in 1914 which plied its trade on the Tyne for many years, but which seemed destined to end its life rotting on a mud bank.

What followed next is an unlikely story of its rescue and resurrection

Mr Cox, the film’s narrator, says: “One cold foggy day along the muddy old bank came an American who just loved tugs and couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the tired old Eppleton Hall and just fell in love with her.”

That American newspaper man – Scott Newhall, the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle – not only bought the tug, but restored and rebuilt it.

“This poor old tug that had been left to die in such dire conditions was not just going back to sea again, but intending to sail all the way to San Francisco,” says Mr Cox.

Sure enough, Newhall sailed the Eppleton Hall 7,000 miles over seven eventful months to San Francisco, where it remains to this day – one of only two vessels of its kind in the world left.

Some of the rarest footage is a series of previously unseen colour films from the late 1950s/early 60s, which includes some dramatic images of the 1973 launch of the World Unicorn, a giant tanker which towered above houses in the Tyneside streets.

The film about the mighty river ends with a mighty claim that plans to build three giant one million tonne supertankers – almost double the size of any ship ever built – at Swan Hunter in the 1960s were well advanced.

The filmmakers have been unable to find a definitive answer as to why it never happened, but it adds an intriguing coda to to a fascinating glimpse into the region’s once great shipping industry.

To purchase the DVD, at £18.95 including P&P and insurance, visit the website at www.snowbow.co.uk or call direct on 01273-585391/584470.