Palmer Shipyard
Page 1Charles Mark & George Palmer
Charles Mark Palmer and his brother George set up a shipyard at Jarrow on the south bank of the River Tyne between Hebburn and south Shields. The year was 1851 and the new company was opened on the site of an earlier yard that had built wooden warships for the Napoleonic Wars.
Charles Palmer’s intention was to open their company in Jarrow, which back then was only a small colliery village, to build ships made from metal rather than wood. Jarrow is the Monastic home of the Venerable Bede the early 1900’s would see the population of this small village grow to a town with more than 40,000 residents. Palmers shipyard would be the backbone of the working community and would become the one most single source of employment in Jarrow. However, in later years this would lead to an almost living death for the workforce of this now large town.
The ability to build well construced ships soon earned Palmer worlwide recognition by 1909 as well as having berth for the construction of ships Palmer had establish blast furnaces, iron and steel works, a boiler and engine works on the site. The dock it-self Stretched nearly three quarters of a mile along the southern bank of the River Tyne.
During the late 1800’s the company went on to have the highest output of ships in Britain. During the company’s life-time Palmers would launch 900 ships, keeping careful details of each ship built.
Prior to the construction of the John Bowes launched on the river in June 1852, an iron paddle tug called the Northumberland launched in April 1852, was the first of his ships small and of little consequence the industry would develop into a major supplier of ships.