This postcard shows the cargo vessel SS Waddon being the first vessel to enter the newly opened dry-dock of Robert Stephenson & Co. Ltd., Hebburn on the 12th August 1904. The SS Waddon was built by Robert Stephenson & Co. Ltd. and had been launched a few months earlier on the 28th May 1904. The Waddon lasted until 1933 when she was broken up at Rotterdam as the SS Tenger. Robert Stephenson had taken over the failed yard of McIntyre ^ Co. Ltd. in 1887. The yard lasted until 1912 when it was taken over by Palmer's Shipbuilding & Iron Company Ltd. Palmer's collapsed in 1932 during the great depression. Vickers-Armstrong took over the yard in 1934 but this time it was only to be a ship repair yard building a new big dock which opened in 1962. The yard closed in 1970 and it would be 2 years later when Swan Hunter took over the yard and used it as a building yard. Swans filled in the small Robert Stephenson dock in 1974. Swans went into receivership in 1993 and the yard was sold to Tyne Tees Dockyard Ltd. in 1994. In 1998 the yard was sold to Cammell Laird who operated the yard until they went into receivership in 2001. A&P bought the yard in 2001 and still operate the yard today.