Concrete Boat

My wife has educated me about todays blip!

At the close of the First World War the shortage of steel led the government to order the construction of concrete ships. The Wear Concrete Building Company was set up in 1918 on a site between Southwick and Castletown. In the end only three concrete ships were ever built here: the tugs, Cretehawser, Creterope, and Cretecable.

The only survivor of these is the Cretehawser, which is now derelict and beached in the River Wear.

We've heard a number of stories of how the Cretehawser came to be where she is. The one we prefer comes from our boatbuilder.

During the Second World War the Port Authority was worried that the tug would be bombed and sunk in the harbour so she was towed up-river and moored. But She slipped her moorings and drifted down to the harbour again. She was towed upstream again and holed to stop her moving.