Cutting of the first sod of the
Kings Dock, Swansea.

In the early morning of Wednesday 20th July 1904 the royal yacht ‘Victoria and Albert’, carrying King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and accompanied by the cruisers ‘Dido’ and ‘Juno’ and the torpedo boat ‘Leda’, arrived in Swansea Bay. Later that morning the ‘Victoria and Albert’ entered the Prince of Wales Dock where the King and Queen disembarked, and where they were formally welcomed on the quayside by Viscount Windsor, Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan, and Mr. Griffith Thomas, Mayor of Swansea and Chairman of the Swansea Harbour Trust.

       After several speeches and formal addresses the King was invited by Griffith Thomas to cut the first sod of the proposed new dock, and to allow it to be called ‘Kings Dock’ in his honour. After the ceremony, during which Griffith Thomas received a knighthood from the King, the royal couple rode in an open carriage past the cheering crowds that lined the festively-decorated streets of the town. The King and Queen departed from Swansea aboard the ‘Victoria and Albert’ the following morning.

 The Kings Dock was officially opened by Sir Griffith Thomas on the 23rd November 1909 and, as part of the opening ceremony, the Blue Funnel steamer ‘Polyphemus’ cut a ribbon across the lock entrance to become the first ship to officially enter the new dock. However, the first ship to actually enter the dock was the burned out Cunard liner ‘Lucania’ which had arrived from Liverpool some three weeks earlier, on the 31st October, for breaking up at T W Ward’s new scrapping berth at the eastern end of Kings Dock.