Couldn’t find this pic when Norman posted the crane pic a few days ago...The Palmer’s cranes, known variously as cableway, cantilever or trolley cranes, or Blondins (after Charles Blondin, the French high wire and tightrope walker) was installed in 1906, the second in 1911/12. They featured huge lattice-work towers supporting elliptical-shaped gantries. These structures were unique in Britain, and not seen in any other British shipyard. The electric trolleys ran on cableways above the building berths, delivering steel plate etc for the riveting gangs below. Boys known as ‘Trolley Boys’ worked on the open trolleys, and needed to be ‘light with a good head for heights’, and aged from about 14/15. They would have had to climb up the upright structure, and then walk along the gantry to their particular trolley...not much protection from the elements at that height on a cold, windy winters day on Tyneside.


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