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

• February 1884 - Industrial and Shipping - BRISTOL CHANNEL - "THE TAFF VALE RAILWAY COMPANY have purchased in the North of England a large dredger for the purpose of deepening the Channel to the Penarth Dock." - The Shipping World [966] [716] February 1884.

• February 1884 - New Dredger - "The screw steam tug Fastnet, of Cardiff, left on Saturday morning and passed the Lizard on Sunday for Gangemouth, to tow dredger Dundee to Penarth for the Penarth Dock and Railway Company." Weekly Mail [067] 9th February 1884.

• May 1884 - Penarth - Found Drowned - "On Sunday morning the body of a man named George James, of Bristol, 51 years of age, was discovered on the mud in the basin of Penarth Dock. The water had been let out of the basin that some repairs might be done, and the body was discovered about half buried in the mud by Police-Constable Saunders. A man got a boat and went and fastened a rope round the body, and it was then drawn to the side of the quay wall, and when the tide was up it was drawn on to the beach and from thence removed to the dead-house. In the man's pocket was found a discharge from the Royal Navy.

An inquest was held at the Police-station on Monday afternoon (before Mr. Grover, coroner), when evidence was given by a man named John Knight, who identified the body. The jury returned an open verdict of "found drowned." Weekly Mail [067] 17th May 1883.

• June 1884 - Ship on Fire in Penarth Dock - "On Friday night, about 9.15, a fire broke out on board the German barque Admiral Tegetthol, lying under No. 10 Tip in Penarth Dock. The men were at work trimming the coal, and the fire is supposed to have originated through the placing of a candle too near the side of the ship. Police-Sergeant Pickwick and Police-Constables Brinston and Jones were on board at the time the fire broke out. The trimmers had to fly for their lives, as the flames spread with great rapidity, and dense volumes of smoke immodestly rose up through the after hatch.