York's order and the dockyard that outlived Palmer's

With support from Sir John Jarvis, Palmer's engine shop continued as a steel foundry for another eighteen months. The Hebburn yard later passed through Armstrong Whitworth, Vickers-Armstrongs, Swan Hunter, Tyne Tees Dockyard, Cammell Laird, and finally A&P Group. Palmer's had previously built HMS Queen Mary, almost a dozen battleships, and many cruisers and destroyers for the Royal Navy. It invested heavily to build HMS York in expectation of follow-on government work, but Exeter, the only follow-on ship, went to Devonport Dockyard. That decision may have saved the state money on the immediate purchase while damaging Palmer's longer-term business case. The surviving dry dock is described as the largest on the United Kingdom's east coast at 259 metres long, 45.7 metres wide, and 5.6 metres deep below chart datum. It has eight cranes as well as steel, joinery, and engineering workshops. Continued repair work preserved part of the Tyne's physical maritime capacity after the integrated enterprise and much of its workforce disappeared.