Volume Five - The Age of Decline & Crass Stupidity - Draining the dock - then oops! . . .

Continuing my recollection of events. As the dock drained, summer arrived and a great stink was born. The water level gradually lowered but there was no sign of the pontoon. The pumps work complete, they were removed from site and a number of labourers were set to work digging manually. Eventually the bow or maybe it was the stern of the pontoon was located near the base of the dam cheekily poking its nose out, or was it its arse? – Who knows!

They had buried the pontoon under the dam!! Mega Oops !!!

“Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be” I recall the apprentices sang as they were known to do when disaster ensued!

Only the last 20 feet (6.1m) or so of a pointed end of the pontoon was recovered. Plates were cut with the aid of burning torches but the loose fill of the dam kept falling in on the workers faster than they could dig and they finally admitted defeat and left. A further consideration, I suppose, is that if they cut into the hull plates of the pontoon it would have potentially opened up a path for water to flood from the full side of the dock to the drained side.

I believe Eddie Avoth & Co. went into administration shortly after. He retired from the ring in 1972 and went onto an acting career. He began with a starring role for Warner Brothers in their 1986 film "Instant Justice". Maybe it should be renamed “Instant Justice at Penarth”!

Finally the dock was filled in above the dam with household and industrial waste. According to Environment Agency, the first waste was received at this side of the dam in December 1971 and tipping was complete by December 1985.

My apprenticeship complete and South Wales industry in decline, by January 1971 I was working in Yorkshire. Julie and I married in February that year at my brother's church in St. Mellons, Cardiff (Peter, being the organist and choirmaster) and we settled in Yorkshire for the next few years.