TYNE BUILT SHIPS
A history of Tyne shipbuilders and the ships that they built
Above: Select the required shipbuilder by using initial letter of the surname eg: Armstrong, Palmer or Readhead.
KEY BELOW: D / H / P (D means basic dimensions are shown; H means a history is given; P means one or more photographs are available)
Shipbuilder: Thomas Hearn, Low Lights, North Shields (1781 - 1806)
North Shields shipwright
John Hearn carried out ship repairs in 1779 and may have already been building new ships.
His son Thomas was registered
as an apprentice with William Carse on 30th December 1773 and duly paid his guinea on becoming a
freeman in 1781.
Three years later he enrolled his brother John as his first apprentice, and before the end
of 1784 his second was the son of North Shields shipwright Eli Laverick.
The Happy Returns (282t) was built
in 1781 at the Low Lights (separating North Shields from Tynemouth).
Hearn built at least 23 vessels,
more than 6000t, over the twenty years 1787-1806; the total output probably exceeded this.
Almost half
of these vessels were 300t or more.
This yard headed the Tyne output of the vessels on Newcastle Register
in 1787, with a total of 766t, the yard's largest tonnage in a single year.
No ships by Hearn were registered
locally in either 1789 or 1792.
Probably however work was carried out in 1789 on one of the two brigs
launched in 1790, with a combined tonnage of 601t.
Usually one ship per year was built and the only other
years exceeding an output of 500t were 1794 and 1795.
The Earl Percy (269t) in 1806 was his last vessel.
In 1804, Hearn employed 30 Shipwrights, 18 of whom were apprentices, and two men were over 50 years
of age.
With this workforce, it is very probable that Hearn, like other shipbuilders, engaged in ship repair work
and ship modifications of which no records survive.
Both Thomas and Joseph Hearn were also shipowners.
Six
vessels in all, more than 1600t, were owned in part or whole by the family in the mid 1780s.
Above history copyright of JF Clarke
The following ships have been identified as built by Hearn:
|
| Yd No | Year | Ship Name | D / H / P |
|---|
| | 1781 | Happy Returns | |
| | 1787 | Liberty | D / H |
| | 1787 | Phoenix | |
| | 1787 | Prudent | |
| | 1788 | Blessing | D / H |
| | 1790 | Brothers | |
| | 1790 | Camilla | |
| | 1791 | Diana | |
| | 1793 | Good Design | |
| | 1794 | Malvina | D / H |
| | 1794 | Wright | |
| | 1795 | Leander | |
| | 1795 | William | |
| | 1796 | Jane | |
| | 1797 | Hermes | D / H |
| | 1798 | William | |
| | 1799 | Nancy | |
| | 1800 | Hearn | |
| | 1801 | British Hero | |
| | 1802 | Ceres | |
| | 1803 | Volga | |
| | 1804 | Dorothy | |
| | 1805 | Princess Charlotte | |
| | 1806 | Earl Percy | |
| | ----- | --------------- | ---------- |