EAW002153 ENGLAND (1946). Wallsend Dry Docks and the Hebburn Shipbuilding Yard with warships being decommissioned, Hebburn, 1946

'Dry' docks are areas of dockland which provide spaces for ships to sail into, but which can then be drained to allow them to be repaired or (in this case) to be broken up and demolished once there is no further use for them. As we see here, they can be very large structures, providing space not only for the ships themselves but also for cranes, storage, access and transportation.

Suggest that the 'Redundant destroyers or frigates with gun mountings removed' are in fact three 'Battle' class destroyers, built on the Tyne and incomplete at the cessation of hostilities. That furthest from the camera has some of her armament fitted, the two nearer have not. Hard to be certain which ships they are, but must be three out of 'Agincourt', 'Alamein', 'Aisne', 'Albuera', 'Corunna', 'Oudenarde', 'Jutland', 'Gabbard', 'Saintes' or 'St.Kitts', all of which were Tyne-built. Some of these ships were subsequently completed; others eventually scrapped, incomplete.



Sources: John English, 'British Fleet Destroyers 1941-45', & George Moore, 'The Battle Class Destroyers' in 2002-2003 edition of 'Warship' annual.