The Merchant Navy giant in Thompson's shipyard which was big enough for a football match
A giant of the seas was taking shape in a Sunderland shipyard around 60 years ago this month.
Towering 60 feet above the Wear shipyard of Joseph L Thompson and Sons was the 85,000 ton Norwegian tanker Borgsten.
A deck big enough for a football match
It was biggest merchant ship built in England at the time and it was due to go down the ways on Friday, November 1, 1963.
Her dimensions showed the scale of the Borgsten. She was 869 feet long and had a beam of 121 feet, which made her deck big enough to accommodate a football practice pitch as part of a sports ground for the crew.
Swimming pool as well
There was also going to be a swimming pool.
The ship had machinery fitted when this Echo archive photo was taken and the Borgsten was due to be ready to leave the Wear before the end of November 1963 to enter the service of Fred Olsen and Company, of Oslo.
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