FERGUSON'S shipyard got off to a 'Flying' start 118 years ago with the launch of the Newark outfit's first ever vessel.

The tug boat Flying Swift entered the waters of the lower Clyde off Port Glasgow on October 26 1903 to great fanfare.

Brothers Peter, Daniel, Louis and Robert Ferguson had only just founded the shipyard earlier that year as a partnership.

They went on to receive a royal seal of approval during the First World War when King George V paid the yard a visit while the workforce was busy building a series of ships for the Admiralty.

Telegraph reader and shipping enthusiast Michael Conway has provided an array of historical photographs showing Flying Swift and marking the king's visit.

Greenock man Michael — who served his apprenticeship at Ferguson's and worked there between 1983 and 2002 — said: "It was hard wee yard to work in and everyone had to muck in.

"But a small yard education is the best education because you got to do a bit of everything."

Michael added: "I just thought it would be good to remember a bit of the history of the place and also the first vessel to be built and launched at the Ferguson Newark shipyard."

The steel hulled Flying Swift — whose yard number was 153 — was a single screw steam tug built for the Clyde Shipping Company of Glasgow.

Four years after her launch, the Ferguson brothers — who had initially leased the shipyard — acquired the freehold as their order book swelled with work.

By 1917, when King George V visited, the yard was building a two paddle hospital ships and two tug minesweepers for the Admiralty.

Other pictures show images of Louis and Robert Ferguson as well as the yard owners being directly involved in the building of one of their ships.

The first recorded launch of a ship at the yard at Newark, long before it became Ferguson's, was of a vessel named 'Jessie' in 1790.