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Probably the most notable connection with Sunderland shipbuilding during the eighteenth century was the establishment of Laings, the oldest surviving firm on the river in 1953. There was nothing then to denote the greatness which was to follow. In 1793, when Laings commenced, the big name in the industry was Havelock. According to the Company records, Philip Laing, a yeoman farmer and shipowner, migrated to Sunderland from the Fifeshire village of Pittenweem, in 1792, at the age of 22, to commence business with his brother John on the Monkwearmouth shore in the following year. John, it is stated, was previously in business at the north-west corner of the North Sands. 

It matters little today who were the first of the shipbuilding Laings, but it appears that the original Laings on Wearside were John and his son David, who were in business together. David died in 1796, by which time Johns younger brother Philip had arrived on Wearside in command of a ship. Philip. incidentally, had been trained as a doctor of medicine, but changed his vocation. The brothers lived in Church Street, Monkwearmouth, near to their yard.

Laings own records show their first ship as the Horta, but the Affiance came before her, and there are two or three other ships entered in the Custom House records which are not in the Laing yard lists. Some of these are referred to having been built by John and David. The explanation, it seems, is that in a office fire the records of ships built were destroyed, and when the list came to be written up by Philip Laing in later years, he had forgotten, or was unaware of, some of the ships which are shown in the Custom House files. The first ship built - the brig Affiance - is certainly entered under the names of John and David. John and his son do not appear to have been long established when Philip joined the firm, for the John and Philip partnership was already established early in 1796, proof of which is to be seen in an endenture signed by the brothers.

In 1953 the title of the firm was Sir James Laing & Sons Ltd, and their record then stood at 160 years of shipbuilding on the Wear. Only one firm in the world - Scotts, of Greenock have a longer history. During this period, over a century and a half, through the rapid expansion of the industry and the revolutionary changes in ship construction - from sail to steam, from wood to iron, from iron to steel, from coal to oil burning- Laings for almost the whole of their history have been at the forefront. They have turned out first class ships of every type, and are known throughout the world for their sound workmanship.

Like so many other Sunderland  shipbuilders, they made several moves in their early years. At Monkwearmouth, the yard was between the premises that we remember in the 1950,s of Joseph L Thompson & Sons and John Crown and Sons.

In 1804 a dock was acquired near Wearmouth Bridge. Later, Laings owned a dock and shipyard in South Shields, but returned to Sunderland and began building at Southwick on a site later occupied by Robert Thompson & Sons. In 1818 they crossed to the south side of the river and settled at Deptford, where the firm was to remain .

In the same year - 1818 - the brothers dissolved partnership, John leaving the firm for Philip to carry on the business himself. Philip built a house which stood within the Deptford shipyard till 1856, and here was born his son, James, who came to exercise a more powerful influence than perhaps any other man had done on the development of Sunderland shipbuilding.

Before James was born, however, his father had made history by launching Sunderlands first East Indiaman in 1815. Up to that time the Old East India Company had enjoyed the monopoly of the carrying trade, but their charter was altered, and Free Trade granted. It was to take advantage of this new opening that Laings built the Caledonian. A year earlier they had launched the Kent, of 195 tons, the first ship built at Sunderland to be fitted with chain cables. Hitherto hempen rope had been used.

James ( afterwards Sir James ) Laing took control of the business at the age of 20 ( in 1843 ) and it is rathe significant that after the launch of his first ship, the Agincourt, built for Duncan Dunbar, he delivered one or more ships to this well known owner every year for the next 12 years.

The Dunbar ships were famous cargo and passenger liners, and Laings enjoyed what was almost a monopoly in their building, until 1864, when the last of them - the Dunbar Castle was launched. La Hogue, of 1855, with a length of 221 feet, was the biggest vessel ever built in the North of England up to that time. She flew the Dunbar house flag.

The end of the wooden walls, so far as Laings was concerned, came in 1866, when the Parramatta was launched. She was a very handsome ship, with tall masts and finely tapering spars, and her painted ports gave her the appearance of a smart naval craft. Among the many famous wood ships built by James Laing were the Philip Laing (1846) , which took out the first batch of emigrants to Dunedin, New Zealand, and the Minden (1848) with a crack passage of 90 days to her credit on her first passage out to Calcutta, via the Cape