THE last cranes at the Swan Hunter shipyard left the Tyne at the weekend, bringing to a close 145 years of history.

More than 1,600 ships were built at the site, with the distinctive cranes the symbol of one of the world’s best known shipbuilders.

The yard was responsible for some of the great ships of the 20th Century, including Mauretania and Carpathia. But on Saturday, the last cranes and dry dock set sail for India.

The company’s last remaining shipyard was mothballed in 2006 with the loss of more than 300 jobs.

It followed the Ministry of Defence announcement that it had ended its contract with the company because of spiralling costs of building two ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

Tom Brennan, GMB Union Northern regional secretary, who worked there for more than 20 years, said he was devastated at the “final nail in the coffin”

for shipbuilders on the Tyne.

As the ship was being prepared for its final departure in Wallsend, he said: “This is the end of a fabulous facility, it is a massive loss to the area. I’m devastated.

“There is a romantic connection to shipbuilding on the Tyne. Most families will have a member who used to work in the shipyards, everyone will know someone who worked in the ships.

“This is the final nail in the coffin for shipbuilding around here.

“The ships which were built at Swan Hunter, for the MoD, were some of the best ever built.

It is a massive loss.

“In the future there could have been demand for this equipment but these facilities have now been lost forever.”

The equipment has been bought by Indian company Bharati Shipyards. Over the past few days the cranes had been secured onto specialist heavy lifting vessel, the Osprey.

The complicated operation, which took months of planning, went smoothly. It involved dredging part of the river bed to allow the Osprey to be partially flooded so it could take the cranes and dry dock on board.