Welsh Journals

a sea lock was built at the lower end of the canal; capable of berthing sea- going vessels of up to some 200 tons, it facilitated the export of iron products from south Wales and provided Cardiff with its first enclosed floating dock, unhampered by the massive tidal range of the Bristol Channel. Within a few decades, however, this modest development was already pitifully inadequate and the industrial barons of Merthyr were demanding better dock facilities. The construction of the Taff Vale Railway in the late 1830s further improved transport facilities in the area and, eventually, Cardiff's greatest landed magnate, the 2nd marquis of Bute, invested much of his personal fortune to build the Bute West Dock, opened in 1839. It was believed in the early nineteenth century that Cardiff's future as a port lay with the export of iron products; the notion that coal exports might one day far outstrip the export of the products of Dowlais and Cyfarthfa was ridiculed at the time. By the 1850s, however, coal was assuming a growing importance as the fine deep seams of the Rhondda began to be exploited; in 1851 the Royal Navy gave its seal of approval to the fine quality steam coal of south Wales and by 1855 coal exports from Cardiff had exceeded lm. tons per annum. Thereafter, coal gradually replaced iron as the industrial foundation of south Wales, and the growing demand throughout the world for 'black diamonds' was reflected in the growth of Cardiffs dock facilities. The Bute East Dock was completed in 1859, Penarth dock in 1865, and the Roath Basin and Dock in 1874 and 1887 respectively. David Davies's new dock at Barry followed two years later and when Cardiff's last and largest dock, the Queen Alexandra, was completed in 1907, the combined coal exports of Cardiff, Penarth and Barry were approaching 20m. tons per annum. On the eve of the First World War, almost the entire world quite literally turned on the power of steam coal from south Wales. With the growing demand for coal, it became clear that a huge fleet of ships was needed to distribute the fuel world-wide. Until the 1860s Cardiff's own shipping had been relatively insignificant; there were only 93 sailing vessels registered at the port in 1860 with an average size of a mere 96 gross tons; both Aberystwyth and Cardigan were at that time shipowning centres of considerably greater commercial significance. Cardiff early native shipowners would seem to have been reluctant to respond to the enormous commercial opportunities that were offered by the development of the coal trade, and most of the coal exported from the port in the mid-nineteenth century was carried in vessels other than those registered at Cardiff.