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Date: 1919-1925 Type: Harbour Style: Industrial Archaeology : Utilitarian Status: Extant

The Prince Edward Dry Dock facility, named for the eldest son of King George V and then heir to the British throne, provides ship repair services, such as maintenance, and repairing of vessels and tugboats. It also offers rescue services to distressed vessels at sea and facilitates the assessment and certification of vessels. World War 1 prompted development of the Durban Port. Discussions of building a graving dock had preceded the War in 1912 with a view to constructing it at Cato Creek. By 1914 plans had been drawn up but the War and economic stringency intervened and so the project was held in abeyance. Difficulties with the proposed site saw it being moved to its current location. A short burst of economic activity after the War saw work commence on the dock in 1919, finally completed in 1925. (Lumby,AB. 1992. The development of the Port of Durban during the ''long capitalist boom''. The Great Circle, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 105-113, see JStor). In 2016 the refurbishment of the dry dock’s 35-metre-long, 900 ton outer caisson, which closes off the dry dock from the rest of the harbour, was the first of the rehabilitation projects of the 90 year-old dry dock to be completed. The rehabilitation of the inner caisson, which divides the Port of Durban’s Prince Edward Graving Dock into two compartments, enabling two smaller vessels to be docked simultaneously, was undertaken in 2018.