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

Docks c.1865 (completed).

Present and active in carrying out the opening were : - James Poole, Esq., Chairman of the Taff Vale Railway, W. D. Bushell, Esq., Messrs Hawkshaw and Dobson, engineers to the docks, W. S. Cartwright Esq., and other Directors of the Taff Vale Railway Company and the Penarth Harbour Dock and Railway Company. Mr. Crawshay Bailey was absent, owing to the death of his son-in-law.

At 7.30 Mr. James Poole said : -

"The Baroness Windsor was to have been present, and assist in the ceremony of opening the dock, but by some unforeseen accident, her Ladyship has not arrived and as time and tide wait for no man, I have been requested to open the dock in her name. I do so and may God bless the undertaking. I now declare the Penarth Dock open."

"The gates swung open, and the 'William Cory', a splendid high pressure, screw steamer gaily decorated with streamers, entered amidst the booming of cannon. As the steamer passed through she was christened by Mrs. Thomas Powell. The lifeboat 'Harriet' followed, gaily painted and decorated, christened by the Baroness Windsor. (Her Ladyship had apparently arrived shortly after the opening ceremony).

A demonstration was then given by the lifeboatmen, who went through all the exercises, including the capsizing and re-righting of the lifeboat. One of the lifeboatmen caused such amusement by his efforts to swim under water, a feat which his buoyant apparatus refused to allow him to perform. A demonstration by the Company's diver followed, after which the company adjourned to a sumptuous breakfast which had been prepared."

The third ship following the lifeboat was the new ship 'Lady Mary Windsor-Clive' built by the Batchelor Brothers and last the Seamen's Mission boat. A gaily decorated engine ran to and fro to celebrate the opening.