It was 1976 and shipbuilding was still in full swing on the busy River Tyne.
Forty-five years ago - on Thursday, September 23 - thousands clocked on for work as normal.
At Swan Hunter’s Neptune yard, more than 500 men were busy putting the finishing touches to the £23m HMS Glasgow - a new 3,500-tonne Royal Navy Type-42 guided-missile destroyer.
READ MORE: Shopping at Marks & Spencer - 1930s-style
Not long after the start of the morning shift, a blast shook the shipyard in Walker, Newcastle.
Workers looked on in horror as a fireball roared out of the nearly completed vessel, scorching and twisting the steel structure.
A devastating fire on board HMS Glasgow would have dire consequences.
That night’s Evening Chronicle reported: “Eight men were killed and six injured today in one of Britain’s worst shipyard disasters.
“The top secret guided missile destroyer HMS Glasgow — one of three ultra-sophisticated Type 42 warships built on the Tyne — was being fitted out at Swan Hunter’s Neptune Yard at Low Walker.
“The dead men were working on number three and four decks near the machinery control room, part of which is below the ship’s water line. One of them had been married only five weeks and another for 11 months.”
A consultant at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary where casualties were taken told us: "Everyone has been overcome by fumes. We are on a full alert." Others had been badly burned.
HMS Glasgow — the eighth Royal Navy ship to bear the city’s name — had been launched in April by Lady Treacher, wife of Admiral Sir John Treacher.
When the alarm went up, 11 fire engines and 75 crew of Tyne and Wear brigade joined the yard team to fight the blaze and rescue stricken workers.
One man who escaped said later: “It was pure hell down there. It is gutted inside, with water and burnt-out cables everywhere.”
Another added: "The corridor was filled with smoke and all the lights went out. It was a bit rough."
Men working on the lower deck where the fire broke out had a difficult escape route. The only way up was by wooden ladders and along corridors on each deck. It was a dangerous part of the ship to work on, and those working there received extra allowances.
A later report confirmed the blaze was started by a welder’s torch after gas had been leaking from an oxygen cylinder.
An inquest several months later heard almost twice as much oxygen as normal had collected in the lower levels of HMS Glasgow because safety rules had been breached.
Two months after the fire, Swan Hunter was convicted at York Crown Court of three health and safety offences and fined £3,000.
In March 1979, two and a half years after the tragedy, a newly-commissioned HMS Glasgow sailed gracefully out of the River Tyne bound for Southampton where she would enter service with the Royal Navy.
The vessel later took part in the 1981-82 Falklands conflict where she was damaged by an Argentine bomb which passed through the engine room without exploding.
After more than 25 years of service the vessel was decommissioned in 2005 and laid up in Fareham Creek, Portsmouth.
In January 2009, just under 30 years after leaving the River Tyne, the ship was towed to the breaker’s yard in Aliaga, Turkey.
A new HMS Glasgow - the ninth Royal Navy ship to bear that name and a new Type 26 frigate - is under construction on the River Clyde in Glasgow. It is expected to enter service in the mid 2020s.
For more Chronicle nostalgia, including archive pictures and local history stories, click here to sign up to our free newsletter.
