The following is an extract from " The Borough of So. Shields " by George B Hodson published in 1903 - a vertitable mountain of information about Shields . "Part of Cookson's Quay was secured as the site of So. Shields Ferry Landing and by permission of the Improvement Commissioners , the Carriage way in Dean Street was lowered and altered to suit the ferry . A regular steam ferry service for both foot passengers and cart traffic was commenced in July 1830 , with two steam boats . Altogether the company spent £10, 415 in building boats , acquiring and preparing landings , and establishing the ferries . Originally the boats ran during the day time only and not with the utmost regularity . Indeed , Mr Robert Ingham MP in a lecture in Berwick , of which time he was Recorder , rather fancifully deduced the origin of the local proverb " All together like the folk in Shields " from the delays incidental to the use of the ferries . He thought the proverb should read " We all gang together like the folk in Shields " and that it had its origin in the way Shields people were obliged to wait , sometimes as long as a couple of hours , in order to allow the tide to make so as to enable the boats to get across the river . By the time their deliverance arrived , there was naturally a big crowd collected and a rush of passengers ensued . The original ferry boats were probably largely responsible for this state of affairs . The first pair were the " Baron Rewcastle " bought in Scotland for the service which proved absolutely useless and had to be sold and the " Durham " , a double hulled wooden steamer , built by Oliver of So Shields . She was a veritable curiosity of Naval Architecture , propelled by one gigantic , clumsy paddle wheel in the centre . The twin hulls were joined by an iron stanchion and the craft looked like for all the world like a floating dock . The ponderous gangways had to be raised and lowered by hand winch , an arrangement which did not conduce altogether the safety of the passengers , nor to the improved moral of the employees , for sometimes the apparatus refused to work . in spite of the combined forces of language and physical strength . The carrying capacity of the "Durham" was four carts , in addition to of course the passengers and in a Spring Tide she would take 20 minutes to cover the journey between landing and landing . The first "Northumberland" , built in Sunderland , was of a different type , having only a single hull , but was lacking so seriously in stability that a bogie , heavily laden with chains , had to run on rails from side to side , as occasion required to maintain her proper balance . When she listed , she took in water copiously , and even when she was upright she always sufficient leakage to keep replenishing her well , from which , instead of from the river , the boilers were regularly fed . These curious craft drew about 6 feet of water each , and being difficult to handle , could not approach the landing at low tide , the passengers having to be put ashore by sculler boats , while it was not an infrequent thing for the boats to ground on Dortwick Sand , which then encumbered the middle part of the Harbour , and upon which they sometimes remained fast a couple of hours . In its earlier years the Ferry Company was by no means a financial success ."