An amateur film by Ronald Torbet that shows cargo ships arriving on the River Wear manoevered by tugboats. One of the tugboat’s featured is the paddle steamer Eppleton Hall. The film also features the passenger ship Empress of England leaving the docks at Vickers-Armstrong on the River Tyne where she was built and completed on the 19th March 1957. The film opens with a general view of a cargo ship heading out to sea in the distance, a concrete pier and dockyard crane in the foreground. The...

An amateur film by Ronald Torbet that shows cargo ships arriving on the River Wear manoevered by tugboats. One of the tugboat’s featured is the paddle steamer Eppleton Hall. The film also features the passenger ship Empress of England leaving the docks at Vickers-Armstrong on the River Tyne where she was built and completed on the 19th March 1957. The film opens with a general view of a cargo ship heading out to sea in the distance, a concrete pier and dockyard crane in the foreground. The film cuts to a quayside where the paddle tugboat Eppleton Hall is moored. Viewed from a quayside, a cargo ship sails upstream. On the Wear, a tugboat makes its way upstream. The Eppleton Hall accompanies another cargo ship, possibly the SS Lady Charrington, as it passes a wooden pier and heads upstream. A large tanker is moored along a quay on the opposite bank of the river. A second tugboat appears on the far side of the cargo ship accompanying it up river. The ship is guided into a dock area by two tug boats. An overhead view follows of a cargo ship moored at a quayside. A tug boat accompanies a different cargo ship along the Wear. Again, it is seen turning on the water guided by two tugboats. People are taking a stroll along a pier while others look out onto the river where another cargo ship enters the Wear. As it heads upstream close to the pier, a small three-manned fishing boat passes in the opposite direction heading out to sea. Back at the pier, a number of men fish and a small crowd watch as the cargo vessel continues towards its assigned berth. As it turns in the water a little further along, small sailing dinghy’s sail near to the pier Four people stand at the head of the pier as a small fishing boat heads out to sea. On the horizon, another cargo ship waits to come into the river.   A man in a yellow slicker fishes from a stone pier. In the distance, another cargo ship approaches the mouth of the Wear. The pilot cutter begins to guide the ship on the Wear. Two tugboats head out to sea. Men fish from a pier as a cargo ship approaches and enters the harbour. The ship continues upstream accompanied by two tugboats. A smaller cargo ship, the Frisian Coast, travels upstream along the Wear. Now on the River Tyne, a passenger ship, the Empress of England, is moored along a quayside. Shipyard cranes stand in the background including the David and Goliath crane at the Vickers-Armstrong naval shipyard at High Walker. Two tugboats begin to tow the ship towards the mouth of the Tyne. From the beach at South Shields, the film records the Empress of England heading out to sea  and crowds watching from the pier near the Groyne Lighthouse. Title: Bon Voyage