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

A hole was cut in the deck near the cabin enabling the brigade to get at the seat of the fire. For hours this work went on, the vessel all the time slowly sinking, and ultimately, about nine hours after the fire began, the barque went down in thirty feet of water. The ship was to have been bound for Shanghai with a cargo of steam coal."

During January 1881 there were severe gales in the Bristol Channel and twenty ships were swept ashore between Penarth Head and Lavernock Point. Three were large ships, three were French brigs or schooners, and the remainder were coastal craft.

The "Western Mail" of 21st January 1881 reported, "Several ships missing from Penarth. The Swedish barque "Juan" slipped both anchors in Penarth Roads on Thursday morning and was docked by the Cardiff tug, "Royal Sailor". The screw steamer "Hathersage" was in collision with a vessel, name unknown, and docked at Cardiff on Thursday morning with part of a bowsprit driven into her starboard bow.

The French brig "Zoe", Captain Le Roy, which was driven from her anchorage in Penarth Roads has not been heard of up to Thursday night. Little hope is now entertained of the safety of the French barque "Alexandre". She was not only dismasted but had lost her rudder and the tug "Lord Derby" in attendance on her when drifting past Sully on Tuesday was observed on Wednesday by the tug "Royal Saxon" alone, heading for Porlock Bay to render assistance to another disabled vessel."

The "Buckhurst" was one of the large sailing ships driven aground whilst on her way to Bombay. She was refloated. Alderman Sam Thomas presented an oil painting of this ship to Penarth library.

A hazard was the Cefn-y-Wrach shoal, a triangular shaped bank off Penarth Head. When the Bute East Dock was opened in 1859 a channel was cut through the shoal, but as vessels became larger it became necessary to widen and deepen the channel. The Bute Trustees did the work for the approaches to Cardiff Docks, and the Penarth Dock authorities made their cut through the shoal safer in 1878. Nevertheless, dredging to prevent mud blocking the channel approaches had to be continually done.

The Penarth trade increased from 275,333 tons in 1865 to 1,230,404 tons in 1870, but dropped only for a while to 1,111,055 tons in 1875 after the opening of the Roath Basin.