Volume Nine - Pre-Victorian to the present day - even more aspects - Cefn-y-Wrâch . . .

Mr. Plimsoll's Parliamentary engagements prevented him from being in Cardiff on Wednesday, but he left London yesterday morning, and arrived at Cardiff at 3 p.m., accompanied by Mr Moore. Mr Plimsoll was met at the Great Western Station by a deputation of the Cardiff pilots, headed by Mr W. Richards and Mr David Morse, and without loss of time was driven to Penarth. Here the party took to small boats and were conveyed across the outward channel of the river Ely to the Cefn-y-Wrach. The tide at this time being almost "dead low," there was every opportunity for making a careful examination. The channel through the Cefn-y-Wrach was almost completely exposed to view ; the water being only 30 or 40 feet wide in many parts of the channel, while the east and west mud flats on either side of the Wrach, the course of the Taff, and eastern entrance were open to the fullest inspection.

The chief spokesmen of the pilots pointed out to Mr Plimsoll that the entrance to the channel through the Wrach was almost completely blocked up by a bank of stone and mud, which had been washed there by the river Taff within the last 10 or 12 months. This bank, or promontory, was measured by Mr Richards, and found to be 63 yards long, and stretched for more than 26 yards across the northern mouth of the channel, while another bank of smaller dimensions is forming upon the opposite side, and before long the mouth or the channel will be completely closed up. At the time the deputation arrived the water was running out of the Cefn-y-Wrach Channel, in a northerly direction, into the river Taff, thus showing conclusively that the channel was much higher than the bed of the river. This flow of water continued in the same direction for about an hour and a-half, when it was submerged by the rising tide. The flow of water came from the river Ely, which runs into the Cefn-y-Wrach channel further south. Another portion of the Ely water ran through the channel towards its southern entrance.

The reports in yesterday's South Wales Daily News - that the Mayor and Harbour-master, at their inspection of the Wrach on Thursday, had reason to think that the marks on the Cefn-y-Wrach were caused by dragging of chains and anchors - led to a great deal of criticism and examination by Mr Plimsoll and the pilots. It was pointed out that there was no less than five or six straight lines of marks, in one case measuring 600 or 800 feet - and they were of such a character as no chain or anchor could produce, while innumerable stones along each line were marked with what was apparently red paint and iron rust from the bottom of some steamer.