Shipyard workers watched on as, 50 years ago on St Patrick’s Day, one of the North East’s most iconic nightclubs left the Swan Hunter slipway for the first time.
The turbine steamship TSS Dover - later renamed the Earl Siward, Sol Express and finally the Tuxedo Royale - was built in 1965 as a roll-on/roll-off ferry and spent much of her later life as a floating nightspot beneath the Tyne Bridge, before being laid up and left to rot on the banks of the River Tees in Middlesbrough.
But half a century ago there was no sign of the illustrious future to come, merely a few workers and dignitaries milling around as a photographer took a snap - which now forms part of the Tyne & Wear Shipyards Collection at Tyne and Wear Archives.
Reaching the milestone means that the vessel is now eligible for the historic ships register, which those who hope to save it say would be a major step forward, as it would give the Royale protection similar to that of a listed building.
Businessman Terry Owens, of Yarm, is spearheading the campaign, which it is believed would need around £14m to restore the ship and turn it into a training centre for young shipbuilding engineers.
And last August he said he hoped to sit down with the Heritage Lottery Fund to see what help may be available - though reaching 50 years and gaining a listing could be a major factor in the project’s success.
“They have said they would be willing to support us but to what extent we don’t know yet,” he said at the time. “It is going to be a major refurb and in order for the project to work we need a large amount of money.
“We’re trying to convince them that this is a worthwhile project.
“Hopefully if we can get the ship on the historic register it would support our application,” Terry added.
“At the moment it is a battle against time because we can’t leave it for much longer.”
In its heyday, thousands of people partied aboard the boat and its sister vessel, the Tuxedo Princess, when they were berthed under the Tyne Bridge.
But the Tuxedo Royale closed in 2006 and owners Absolute Leisure went into administration three years later.
The ship is now berthed at Able UK in Middlesbrough, but is listing heavily after being targeted by vandals and thieves.
But for anyone wanting to relive its heyday - and that of many other ships built in the North East - The Tyne & Wear Shipyards Collection at Tyne and Wear Archives is now part of the UNESCO Memory of the World Register, a global online catalogue created to help promote the UK’s heritage.
Only 11 items were selected that year from the UK’s libraries, archives and museums to represent the history of the UK, including the Domesday Book, the Churchill Archives and the Hitchcock’s Silent Movies archive.
“The Tyne and Wear Archives Shipyards Collection is a testimony to the remarkable achievements in shipbuilding and engineering produced on Tyneside and Wearside over the past 200 years,” a spokesman for the archives said.
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- Tyne & Wear Archives is open Tuesday to Friday, from 10am to 4pm, and is free to use.
