Volume One - Into the Victorian Age - The graving dock and the growth of the coal trade . . .

The Transactions of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineering Vol. XXIII of 1873-74 [487] [499] published the following statistics of exports and imports at the Penarth Dock and Ely Tidal Harbour from the opening of the dock in May 1865.

Penarth Dock and Tidal Harbour Statement showing the total quantities of the following articles shipped and imported from the year 1865 to 1873.
	EXPORTS			IMPORTS
	Coal	Coke	Iron	Iron Ore	Iron Stone	Pit Wood	Loam	Bricks	Esparto	Sundries
	Tons.	Tons.	Tons.	Tons.	Tons.	Tons.	Tons.	Tons.	Tons.	Tons.
1865	270	681	8,208	1,511	. . .	300	51	. . .	. . .	. . .
1866	557,901	342	8,502	633	. . .	856	81	. . .	. . .	1,752
1867	700,872	336	4,561	1,463	36	323	150	194	3,011	561
1868	903,451	1,242	2,340	1,204	. . .	. . .	159	249	3,377	707
1869	1,123,364	1,039	3,380	2,254	1,645	. . .	127	114	3,137	591
1870	1,222,083	124	2,434	2,797	. . .	. . .	266	195	2,611	1,811
1871	935,892	354	955	521	. . .	1,026	609	196	2,989	2,395
1872	1,019,327	317	2,603	50,445	. . .	13,700	1,923	45	1,574	1,409
1873	1,426,323	1,227	1,352	61,603	. . .	32,499	3,076	79	992	6,221

As may be seen from the table above, trade at the docks increased steadily from opening and only eight years later 1.4 million tons of coal was shipped. Over the next decade demand outstripped the capability of the dock to cope with the increase in the coal trade. Simultaneously, and by the mid-1880's, sail was overtaken by steam; ship size and cargo carrying capacity increased in proportion to the technological improvements in steam motive power and maritime construction techniques.