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

The Booth Line of Royal Mail Steamers, which was founded in 1866, also ran a regular service carrying mail, passengers and freight to Havre, Hamburg, Oporto, Lisbon and Madeira, en route for Para, Manos and other North Brazilian ports, and thence to New York.

The steamers of the Iquitos S.S. company, under the same management also sailed regularly from Penarth to the inland port of Iquitos, 2,000 miles up the Amazon, in Peru. This service ended when the first World War began in 1914. [1174]

In 1912 the exports from the dock were : -

Imports were 110,080 tons including pulp for paper making, pitwood, iron ore and general merchandise. The total imports and exports for 1912 were 4,300,866 tons. [1175]

These figures show that it was a coal exporting dock and that the other merchandise was a very small part of the trade.

1913 proved to be the peak year for total exports from South Wales when Cardiff exported 13,676,941 tons, Barry 11,736,179 tons and Penarth 4,660,648 tons. These tremendous export figures were never to be attained again. [614]

The facilities at the dock and harbour in 1913 were under the direction of Samuel Thomas, the Dock and Harbour Master and Superintendent. He succeeded James Edwards who died in 1892.