Volume Six - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Select Aspects - Working the Ely Tidal Harbour . . .

1871 - "Terrific Explosion on Board a Steamer - A frightful accident occurred last Friday evening near the entrance to the Penarth Dock, a mile or two from the mouth of the river Ely, attended by loss of life and considerable destruction to property. Since the resumption of work at the South Wales collieries there has been a revival of commerce in the river Ely, and the various crafts which load the tips in the Tidal Harbour have left the port with regularity.

Last Friday evening the screw steamer 'John', a barge of some 74 tons register, the property of Mr. J. Payne, shipbuilder, Bristol, trading between that city and Cardiff, proceeded from the tip at which she had taken her cargo of coals down the river Ely for her destination, intending, it is said, availing herself of the "spring" tides which are now prevailing, to reach Bristol with the flow of the tide, by high water.

She was in command of George Bellamy, and carried a crew of three men - Edward Thompson, mate ; William Hodge, engineer ; and Joseph Langdon, seaman - together with William Bennett, mate of the 'Camellia', of Bristol, who was on board as passenger. Her steam was up, and the outside of the harbour had been reached, when the boiler burst with a report that must have been heard far away on the Penarth shore.

The captain and engineer were blown by the force of the explosion into the sea, and were drowned, and the other men were swept from one end of the boat to the other, being, by their violent concussion with the spars on which they alighted, rendered for a time insensible.

The interior of the barge, especially her machinery, had been instantly transformed into a confused mass of rusty iron, and the shattered portions of the vessel which had been hurled into the air were scattered in small misshapen pieces over the surface of the surrounding water. The barge in this ruined condition was towed into the tidal harbour, and though such destruction had been wrought in her inside, no dangerous leak has been discovered, and she is considered to be almost as taut as ever.

Captain George Goode, of the 'Camellia', a boat plying between Bridgewater and Lydney, who was an eye-witness of the explosion, has furnished the Western Mail with the following narration of the disaster : -