Volume Eight - Pre-Victorian to the present day - more aspects - Pamir and Passat - the end of an era . . .

As a ten year old scruff I was more interested in ships and trespass on the local railway lines whilst 'mitching' off school hence, I wasn't a good pupil at the Dinas Powys County Primary School. Predictably, I failed the 11+ exams and subsequently attended secondary school a few miles away at Cadoxton, Barry. The school was an imposing and intimidating Victorian building set high on a hill overlooking the No.2 Dock of Barry with its miles and miles of the old coal sidings. Distinct, on the far side of the dock was the imposing Atlantic Mills of J. Rank Ltd. and beyond the Gueest banana quay with its brilliant white, gleaming modern ships. Beyond that the Bristol Channel, the North Devon coastline and beyond that, the Atlantic Ocean and the rest of the World.

'Passat' and 'Pamir' had left the dock a decade earlier but the coal trade for most of South Wales had by this time been centralised at Barry so there was still a good amount of interesting maritime activity there. Oh, how I wanted to go to sea and see the World! The school song composed by music teacher, friend and mentor, Mr. Peter Reece had some of these words:

Sorry Sir, I think I forgot the words again! Leaving those school days and the rats behind for a while the following article by Giles Tod appeared in the 'Motor Boating - the Yachtsmen's Magazine' [291] during December 1950 which I felt was a significant piece to include in our story.