Volume Eleven - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - some more aspects - Random Rants, Notes and Articles No. 1 . . .

1905 - The Durability of Timber - Hurst's edition of Tregold's "Carpentry" gives some interesting particulars of the durability of wood in a wet state. . . .  The curious looking hollow piece of elm exhibited on the table was part of one of the old water pipes laid down by Sir Hugh Myddelton in 1613, when London was first supplied by water from the New River. It was obtained by the writer from the foundations of the Whitecross Street Goods Station belonging to the Midland Railway, during the construction of the warehouses about 1870. The long piece, roughly shaped ready for forming into a walking stick, was cut from a log of yew found 40 feet below the surface of the ground in excavating for the Penarth docks in 1866, where it must have lain for countless ages, and it is seen to be still perfectly sound and strong. A damp situation is bad for most timbers, but some will resist better than others. - Wood Craft [1106] [499] October 1905.

1886 - The Law Times - Admiralty Division - Collision — Cardiff Drain — Crossing Ships — Docking Signal — Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, Arts. 16, 23. — The steamship St. Audries in charge of a pilot, being bound from Newport to Penarth Dock, was crossing Cardiff East Flat, and making for the dock entrance, when the steamship Saltwick was seen coming down the Cardiff Drain bearing on the starboard bow of the St. Audries. The St. Audries carried the usual docking signal of two bright lights aft, which were seen by those on board the Saltwick. The pilot in charge of the St. Audries took no steps to get out of the way of the Saltwick until a collision was inevitable, he alleging that as he was bound for the dock he was entitled to hold on notwithstanding the provisions of article 16 of the Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea that where "two ships under steam are crossing so as to involve risk of collision the ship which has the other on her own starboard side shall keep out of the way of the other:" Held, that there were no special circumstances exempting the St. Audries from obeying the provisions of art. 16, and that, therefore, she was to blame for a breach of the Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea: (The St. Audries. Adm. Div.: Sir James Hannen. Feb. 10.) - The Law Times  [1114] [499] 20th February 1886.