When the warship HMS Northumbria collided with the Swing Bridge on the River Tyne

If you’d wandered down to Newcastle Quayside 50 years ago, this is the sight you would have been confronted with.

A Royal Navy warship, it turns out, had had a bit of a bump. Minesweeper HMS Northumbria was based on the River Tyne between 1960 and 1972 at Gateshead’s HMS Calliope. Not long before she was decommissioned, the vessel collided with the Swing Bridge. It happened on the afternoon of October 6, 1972 , when the 450-tonne ship was en route from North Shields to its berth at the Quayside.

The Northumbria was coming in with the tide and was negotiating towards the berth when she swung broadside and drifted upstream into the bridge. Eventually, it took a team of Royal Navy officials, armed with ropes, to pull the minesweeper away from the bridge to safety.

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The accident was witnessed by 16-year-old Norman Hobbs, of Blakelaw, who told the Chronicle : “It seemed as if it was going to hit the south bank when it appeared to get caught by the tide and drifted straight into the bridge." In the event, the ship suffered damage on the starboard side, while the tough, old Swing Bridge was left unmarked.

Afterwards a spokesman for the Port of Tyne Authority said: “It appears that the Northumbria got into slight difficulties because of the flood tide. There was some danger of damage so the captain put her against a stone abutment.”

Royal Navy minesweeper, HMS Northumbria, shortly after a collision with the Swing Bridge on the River Tyne at Newcastle. October 6, 1972 (Mirrorpix)

It later emerged that the Northumbria had been involved in two earlier accidents. In 1962, the vessel veered into Amsterdam Wharf at Gateshead, causing extensive damage to the staging and sustaining some damage to the bows. Then, in 1968, the ship was in a collision with another vessel while on a NATO exercise in the English Channel. On that occasion a 10ft hole was left in her side.

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