Tyne Voyages is of stories by acclaimed writer Michael Chaplin commissioned as part of my arts strategy for The Word, National Centre for the Written Word.
Michael said: "The stories aren’t made up, they are all true, and their extraordinary events really happened, just as the extraordinary people in them lived and breathed the sea air". A few years ago I became the Port of Tyne’s writer-in-residence and discovered a great story I later told in the book Tyne View and the stage play Tyne: the long, symbiotic relationship between the river and its people. Thus I came to understand that South Tyneside is different from its three cousins, the other Tyneside boroughs by the water: a place set apart.
It wasn’t just the constant salty breeze from off the sea, but the growing sense that the making of ships and the going to sea over many generations has shaped this community – defined its identity and soul – and does so still.
The stories form a trail around the building with a map on the Rooftop Viewing Terrace bringing the stories together to identify South Tyneside’s seafaring connections with the rest of the World, the project extends into the Market Place, located directly outside of The Word, where the ship names, dates, destinations, cargoes and people involved are etched into the seating.
