Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - A History of Penarth Dock by Roy Thorne . . .

He proposed what became the substance of the Bute Ship Canal Act, 1830, foreseeing the new basin as being supplied not only by the Glamorganshire Canal, but by railways "should it hereafter be found necessary to the increase of Trade to lay down Railroads from the interior of the country."

In July 1830 the Bute Ship Canal Act was passed giving powers for a waterway 1½ miles long and 33 feet deep with 16 feet of water on the sill of the entrance lock at half flood spring tides, the entrance being a mile nearer the sea than that of the canal. There was to be a dock basin with two lateral connections to the Glamorganshire Canal. [1158]  The cost of this work was estimated as £76,000 and was to be borne by Lord Bute, but he took no immediate action.

In 1833 Lord Bute decided to seek authority for a different plan and this received the support of William Crawshay II who referred to the "dawn of harmony" [1158] between the Canalists and Bute.

Lord Bute's plans were revised by William Cubitt. The work began in December 1834, and the West Bute Dock was opened in 1839. The revised plan provided for a ¾ mile dredged approach to sea-gates leading to an outer basin where an entrance would admit craft to the main dock, 1,400 yards long and 200 feet wide.

This was intended to accommodate 300 craft at once. Most vessels at this time were sailing ships of between 20 to 30 tons. From this a dock there was a branch connection to the canal. The West Bute Dock and its works cost £350,000, of which £220,000 was cash from Bute and the remainder in materials from the Bute possessions. [1158]

At first trade was poor, and it was not until the completion of the Taff Vale Railway to Merthyr on 12th April 1841 that the prosperity of the new dock became assured.

The earlier Ely project was abandoned on the advice of Captain W. H. Smyth who became the first Bute Dockmaster. He had made his report in 1833 and in 1840 he wrote this account of his report : -