Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - Railway Magazine - Interview with Mr. Ammon Beasley - TVR - 1898 . . . .

This dock is designed to accommodate vessels of the very largest class, for which no adequate dock accommodation at present exists. Vessels approaching 750ft. in length, and capable of carrying 18,000 tons cargo, are at the present time being built, and shipowners predict that the size will go on increasing for many years to come. For this reason, the entrance lock to the Windsor Dock will be 1,000ft. long and 100ft. wide, and vessels of 1,000ft, in length can swing with ease in the dock itself."

"The Bill has just passed the Commons, I believe?"

"Yes. After an inquiry lasting from the 3rd of May till the 16th of June - of course, with intervals. It has been the fight of the Session, and has taken up more of my time than I care to reckon."

"I believe your docks are provided with the most modern and efficient machinery for properly dealing with the large tonnage that annually passes through them?"

"Necessarily. Perhaps one or two facts showing what has actually been done in the way of shipping coal will be better than any detailed explanation of the appliances by means of which it was done. I should explain that coal is generally shipped at the port of Cardiff by means of high-level tips or staithes.

The loaded wagon is run on to the cradle of the tip and the rear end raised so as to allow the contents to run down the shoot into the hold of the vessel. Some tips are fixed and some movable, and at Penarth they are all fixed, so that however large a steamer may be only one tip can be brought to bear upon her at a time ; but better work has nevertheless been done at Penarth than at any other dock in the port - I mean in the way of dispatch, as, for instance , on one occasion the s.s. "Ashdene" commenced loading at 6 a.m. and sailed at 10 o'clock, having taken on board within the four hours 1,424 tons of coal over one tip ; while on another occasion the steamer "Britannia," docked at 9.15 a.m., and, after taking in 1,185 tons 16 cwt. of cargo and bunker coal, proceeded to sea at 1 p.m. on the same tide.

This was the first time that such feat had been accomplished in any dock in the Bristol Channel, and shows that for dispatch Penarth Dock holds the foremost place.