Volume One - Into the Victorian Age - Some newspaper reports from the 1880's

• April 1883 - Murder Scare at Penarth - A German Sailor Reported to be Killed - "A sensation was created at Penarth late on Monday night by the rumour that in a quarrel at the dock a German sailor had been killed. The facts on which the rumour was based were more than sufficient - making allowance for the usual amount of exaggeration - to lend a tone of probability to the affair ; but as brought out at a coroner's inquest held on Tuesday night they place the matter in the clearest possible light, and at once dismiss the many false conjectures and widely circulated hypotheses.

A quarrel did take place, and a man lost his life, but there is no analogy to be drawn between the facts. The quarrel took place between some intoxicated sailors of the ship Bremer of Bremen, about eight or nine o'clock in the evening ; and about a quarter past twelve one of the men, named Frederick Agustus Valentine, accidentally fell into the water while attempting to go on board by a ladder, and was drowned. A watchman on duty at the jetty, near which the Bremer was lying, waiting to go on the grid-iron, cautioned the deceased that it would be unsafe for him, in his half-drunken state, to attempt the passage of the ladder, except by going on his knees ; but self-confident, he declared he was "all-right," and proceeded to get on board. He had only advanced a few steps when he slipped, and only saved himself by clinging to the side of the ladder, over which there was a plank.

Nothing daunted he to the task but this time slipped fatally. He fell into the water and immediately sank, despite the fact that the life-buoys were thrown to him, and that every means were taken to save his life. His body was recovered shortly afterwards by means of the grappling hooks, and was removed to the dead-house. An inquest on it was held by Mr E. B. Reece, the borough coroner, on Tuesday night, at the police-station, and the facts already given were brought to light. the verdict of the jury was to the effect that the man was accidentally drowned." Cardiff Times [019] 7th April 1883.

• August 1883 - Penarth - The Four-masted Ship W. J. Pirrie - "This fine vessel, a notice of which appeared in our columns, cleared for San Francisco on Friday. During the time she lay in the dock numbers of visitors inspected the vessel, and before sailing Capt. J. A. Duckworth, her commander, forwarded £4 16s. 6d. to the secretary of the Liverpool Seaman's Orphanage, being the amount collected in pence from visitors to the ship." Weekly Mail [067] 25th August 1883.