Launch of TSS Principe Perfeito 22nd September 1960

Hard graft and champagne at the successful launch of a Portuguese cruise liner, built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson.

The Swan Hunter shipyard flaunts its shipbuilding prowess on Tyneside in a short newsreel by local film production house, Turners. The sleek Portuguese passenger cargo liner Principe Perfeito is surrounded by elaborate ceremonials on launch day at the Low Walker Neptune works, a cause for pride and reassurance for the shipbuilders. Rather more unusual is the extended focus on workers greasing the slipway and knocking out the keel blocks prior to the traditional launch.