Grace's Guide
British Industrial History
Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 148,100 pages of information and 233,633 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.
Southampton Docks
From Graces Guide
1836 The Southampton Dock Co was incorporated by Act of Parliament
1843 the first dock was opened.
1892 The Dock Company was unable to raise further capital for extensions and disposed of the property to the London and South Western Railway Company.
c. 1894 The Prince of Wales Dock was constructed
1904 The Trafalgar Graving Dock was completed
1909 See plan of dockyard in 1909.
1910 Work to enlarge the Trafalgar Graving Dock began because the entrance was too narrow, being not much wider (2ft 6 in) than the Prince of Wales Dock.
1911 A new deep-water basin was opened to the west of the Empress Dock. The SS Olympic was the first ship berthed in the new basin. The basin had a length of 1700ft., a width of 400ft., and a depth of 40ft. at L.W.O.S.T.[1]
1926 The de-watering plants for the various graving docks at Southampton, as well as the hydraulic pumping installations, have recently been remodeled, electricity having been substituted for steam as a motive power.[2]
1933 Dock Extensions Francis Ernest Wentworth-Sheilds, M. Inst.C.E. Engineer. Edmund Nuttall, Sons and Co and John Mowlem and Co Joint Contractors for the Dry Dock; R. McAlpine and Sons were contractors for the Deep Water Quay.