A yard was established between the Schlesinger yard and Mr Allen's chemical factory in 1873, with ships first launched in 1874.

The yard was formally owned by Charles Mitchell, but was operated by two of his associates - Couldon & Cooke. They previously operated at St Peter's but required further space so a yard was built here. Screw Steamers were constructed for around a year until the firm ran into financial difficulties. Charles Mitchell then oversaw the running of the yard. Mitchell passed the yard onto C S Swan, his brother in law, who continued work until his untimely death in 1879.

George Burton Hunter, a Wearside shipbuilder, then entered negotiations with Swan's widow and Mitchell to form C S Swan & Hunter with him as managing director. From there the yard boomed constructing passenger liners, tankers and large cargo ships for companies around the world. Carpathia was built here as well as a number of other trans-atlantic liners. This continued through to 2007, though its last couple of decades saw only ad-hoc repairs and small Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships.

In 2006, Swan Hunter were put up for sale due to expensive and delayed projects which froze them out of future contracts. The yards cranes were put up for sale and moved to the Bharati Shipyards in India. Swan Hunter still remain in a much smaller and specialised form for offshore engineering services and design.

The site has been sold to Shepherd Offshore.