By Martin Brisland.
Before the days of jet travel, The Port of Southampton was once known as the gateway to the world. The Southampton to New York run was serviced by famous names such as the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.
Southampton has a unique double tide with up to seventeen hours a day of high water. The original Eastern Docks are now mainly redeveloped as Ocean Village. The foundation stone was laid by Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Lucius Curtis on 12 October 1838 on 216 acres of reclaimed mudland.
P&O was the first deep sea line to use the port. The Union Line began a service to South Africa in 1842. In 1890 Queen Victoria opened the Empress Dock. The American Line was first to sail transatlantic from 1893, followed by White Star in 1907 and Cunard in 1919. The White Star Dock was opened in 1911. It changed name to Ocean Dock in 1922 and was used by Cunard.
Many older Sotonians fondly recall the impressive art deco Ocean Terminal, which was demolished in 1983. Flying boats operated passenger and mail services near the Ocean Terminal from 1919 to 1958. A Short Sandringham flying boat is in the Solent Sky museum in Albert Road South.
The Western Docks, with its 1.5 miles of straight line quay, were started in 1927. It meant reclaiming over four hundred acres of land from the sea in the former Western Bay and took until 1934. It could handle the largest ships of its time such as RMS Queen Elizabeth. In 1936 the docks handled 46 per cent of the UK’s ocean-going passenger traffic.
A temporary floating dry dock, near Town Quay, was in use from 1924. It measured 293 by forty-one metres. The King George V Graving Dock replaced it in 1933. It was 365 metres long, forty-one metres feet wide and held fifty-eight million gallons of water that could be pumped out in four hours.
The Container Port was opened by Prince Charles in 1968. Today, the five berths are run by DP World. It is the UK’s second largest container terminal, Felixstowe being the largest.
Mayflower Park, between the docks and the former Royal Pier, is one of the few public places to view our busy port. The original wooden pier from 1833 was opened by a young Princess Victoria, she did not become Queen until 1837. This pier was replaced with an iron one in 1895.
The port supports many jobs and contributes £2.5 billion to the nation’s economy every year. It is the UK’s number one export port handling goods worth £40 billion annually. It is the UK’s number one vehicle handling port, processing some 900,000 vehicles annually.
As Europe’s leading turnaround cruise port, Southampton welcomes around two million passengers annually to its five cruise terminals. The £55 million Horizon Cruise Terminal, opened in 2021, and has a ship to shore electricity power facility for cruise ships.
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