The Spirit of the Tyne ferry docked at South Shields.
A new ferry, Spirit of the Tyne entered service in 2007, replacing Shieldsman, which was retired after 30 years.The new ferry is an ‘off the shelf’ product and differs greatly from the Shieldsman and Pride of the Tyne. It was built in Harlingen, Netherlands and fitted out in Portsmouth. The design was adapted from the Gosport ferries ‘Spirit of Gosport’, ‘Spirit of Portsmouth’ and the Vine Trust medical ferry ‘Forth Hope’.