A promotional film produced for the Tees Hartlepool Port Authority by filmmaker Chris N. Harding that showcases the work done by both the authority and the Tees Pilotage Authority to facilitate the safe movement of vessels into and out of the River Tees. The film also showcases the modern facilities available at both the Tees and Hartlepool Dock’s to handle different types of vessel and cargo types. Title: Camera Arts present In the hills of the North Pennines a small stream that is the...

A promotional film produced for the Tees Hartlepool Port Authority by filmmaker Chris N. Harding that showcases the work done by both the authority and the Tees Pilotage Authority to facilitate the safe movement of vessels into and out of the River Tees. The film also showcases the modern facilities available at both the Tees and Hartlepool Dock’s to handle different types of vessel and cargo types. Title: Camera Arts present In the hills of the North Pennines a small stream that is the source of the River Tees. Credit: A film by Chris N. Harding The rugged hills of Cross Fell with the Tees heading into the distance towards the sea. Now a torrent of water the Tees continues to flow downstream over both Cauldron Snout and High Force waterfalls in County Durham. The river now flows quietly through woodland where a pigeon coos from a tree. Reflection in the water alongside the sounds of heavy industry along the Tees featuring the gondola of the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge crossing the Tees. On a beach, waves gently lap onto the sand. Title: River Port, Sea Port Images of Tees and Hartlepool Out in a foggy Tees Estuary a buoy bobbing on the water. Nearby a cargo ship blows its foghorn as it waits to enter the Tees. Onboard a ship a radar screen changes to a gull sitting on a wooden jetty. The Tees Pilot boat turns in the water heading out towards the waiting cargo ship. In the Harbour Master control room at Middlesbrough banks of magnetic-tape data storage machines, sitting at a desk nearby two men from the Tees Pilotage Authority taking down details of a ship via VHF radio. The pilot boat pulled up alongside the cargo ship and carefully jumps to a rope ladder before climbing towards the deck. In the distance another large vessel is pulled into the Tees Estuary by tugboat changes to the Shell tanker Kylix being manoeuvred along the river past the control tower out into the North Sea. Inside the control tower the two pilots seen previous now using telephones while outside two cargo ship moored up along the quayside. Deputy Harbour Master Tom Hall steps of the Tees Pilot boat now moored near to the Harbour Master office with views of the control room and its panoramic view of the river. As the tugboats Ralph Cross and Skelton Cross continue to manoeuvre the Kylix towards the sea, inside the control room Tom Hall picks up a card from board contains information relating to a ship at Tees Dock and takes to a deck where he uses the details to update a ledger. A bank of switches in the control tower and Tom Hall and his colleague at work. Outside beside a large building with a British Steel Corporation logo on it a radar tower and a ‘daylight view display’ of the river appearing on a monitor. From the balcony of the control tower the Kylix continuing its journey towards the sea and the cranes of the Redcar bult Terminal in the distance. From the northside of the Tees the Tees Pilotage Authority radar tower and control room on the Middlesbrough side of the Tees and another display of the river on the radar screen. From a boat on the water a second radar tower at Dabholm Beck and a third on the South Gare beside the lighthouse. On monitors in the control tower the displays of the river taken by these radar stations giving a complete picture of the river from ICI North Tees into the North Sea. Sitting beside the monitors Tom Hall taking notes. On the Tees near to the works of Cleveland Offshore the Cleveland Endeavor fireboat. As it slowly travels towards and under the Transporter Bridge the hoses are turned on and a fireman stands at the controls of one pump atop a hydraulic tower. On a barge a module for a North Sea oil platform, a banner across the front of it reads Cleveland Offshore. A montage of other Cleveland Offshore modules sitting on their respective barges. One completed module and its barge pass under the Transporter Bridge heading towards the North Sea with the tugboat Greatham Cross at its rear. At the summit of Eston Nab the Eston Beacon reference station. Hydrographic Surveyor Ray Heath approaches the station and looks down on the River Tees and Teesside below. Onboard a small motorboat travelling around the Tees Estuary near the Redcar bult Terminal another surveyor attaches electrical cabling into a wall socket while two crewmen drop echo sounders into the water. Information from the sounders is recorded by computer equipment onboard the boat, at the controls of the vessel its captain manoeuvring the boats in a circular patten in order to get the most accurate survey data. The surveyor ejects a magnetic data cassette from the computer containing all the data and in an office a woman puts the tape into another computer which then prints out a large-scale paper chart with all the depths plotted on it. In another officer a young man renders some of the area in red pencil indicating a priority area for dredging. In the wheelhouse of the trailer suction dredger Heortnesse, Master Ray Barrass marking a chart with his course. The Heortnesse slowly making its way along the Tees with Ray Barrass and two crewmen at the controls. The large dredging pump hangs over the side of the ship in the water sucking up material from the riverbed and dumping them into hoppers onboard. With the hoppers full a crewman at the controls of the pump lifted out of the water, and with it, safety secured the Heortnesse heads out to sea to dump is waste at a spoil ground four miles off South Gare. Back at Tees Dock cranes dominate the skyline and a rail mounted gantry crane unloads its cargo of ore. Wearing a bright orange jacket Tees Dock Manager Peter Slade walks along a quayside passing one of the large dockside cranes. He looks about at the work going on around him and at the various international ships being loaded and unloaded. A shunter train drives away from the British Steel Corporation Steel Export Terminal building. Inside a gantry crane moves a large steel girder placing it outside alongside others. Stevedores work to attach cables to the girders which are then lifted into the Kuwait cargo ship Ibn Asakir. A container handling truck moving a Polish Ocean Lines container from the dockside and loading it onto a mafi trailer which then drives away. Onboard a Ferrymasters roll-on/roll-off (roro) ferry a tractor shunter works to move Transport International Router (TIR) trailers from the dockside onto ship. Waves crash onto Seaton Carew Beach and in the distance ships at sea and the Hartlepool Headland featuring St Hilda’s Church. The Polish bulk carrier Warka is moored at Hartlepool Dock and ore is being unloaded by gantry crane into a lorry. At another part of the dock a consignment of timber is unloaded from another vessel. A plaque on the side of a crane as it unloads a second consignment of timber reads ‘Stothert and Pitt Ltd Bath England’. Stevedore’s work alongside their colleagues in the cranes and forklifts to make sure the timber is unloaded quickly. As a consignment of what is believed to be rolls of newsprint are unhooked from a crane, Hartlepool Dock Manager Bill Niblock watches over the operation. A forklift moves the reels into a warehouse where they are placed beside stacks of others. A consignment of boxes appears from the warehouse along a conveyor where it is collected by a forklift. A second forklift loads some of the reels seen previously onto the back of an articulated lorry. As another consignment of reels are driven off a roro ferry Bill Niblock and a colleague watches on. At the car terminal Vauxhall cars are driven off a ferry while at the other end of the dock at the scrap exporting terminal scrap metal is loaded into a waiting cargo ship by a new electro-hydraulic grab. On the dockside large mounds of scrap metal is being moved by an excavator as the electro-hydraulic grab comes in and picks up another load. Waves splashing onto a beach and two large vessels passing each other near the Tees Estuary. From a boat on the river the Transporter Bridge with Tees Dock behind it. The boat continues along the Tees passing storage tanks at an oil or gas terminal. John Tholen Chief Executive of the Tees Hartlepool Port Authority walks past men working to clean muscles from large buoys. He walks over to the edge of the dockside and looks out onto the ship Wilton moored nearby with him explaining why it is a unique vessel. Another journey along the Tees passing a yellow buoy, birds resting on a sandbank and an industrial complex. From the boat the Transporter Bridge in the distance changes to the river at night with lights from industry and ships illuminating the water as the ships continues its journey along the Tees. The film ends back at the beach featured at the start of the film with waves continuing to slash onto the sand. Credit: Liaison with T.H.P.A. Heather Harding Interview Transcripts Pam Harding Grip Richard Dorrian Lighting and Sound Recording Derek Forster Colour Processing C.F.S. Ltd Edited by Andrew McTaggart Photographed, Produced and Directed by Chris N. Harding. Copyright MCMLXXXIV End title: Chris N. Harding gratefully acknowledges the kind co-operation of the Tees Hartlepool Port Authority, the Tees Pilotage Authority and all who made the production of this film a fascinating and enjoyable experience.