Volume Eight - Pre-Victorian to the present day - more aspects - Sea Breezes Article 1983 - 'Penarth Dock of 35 years ago' . . .

No. 1 tip had an oil pipe and occasionally an oil tanker or oil barge would lie alongside discharging oil from Avonmouth. Next to this tip was a well-built jetty with oil tanks nearby which was also regularly used by coastal tankers. The oil barges were interesting in that they had just a very small wheelhouse aft and a freeboard that was measured in inches rather than feet. With a short mast forward, in rough weather outside Penarth head they resembled a submarine with its periscope up.

These barges were owned by a firm called J. Harker Ltd. and their names were names of Yorkshire areas with the letter 'H' added such as 'Wharfedale H' and 'Wensleydale H'. Some very fine coastal tankers regularly used the jetty. The Esso Petroleum Company had five tankers using this river berth: 'Esso Suwanee', 'Esso Genesee', 'Esso Dakotah', 'Esso Tioga', and 'Esso Ottawa'. Some of these names were the names of the company's earliest ships and it is interesting to see how a company will keep names alive passing them on to the newer ships that they acquire.

The 'Pass of Leny', 'Pass of Balmaha', 'Chartsman', 'Guidesman' and the Metcalfe tanker 'Eileen M' were all regular visitors together with a fine National Benzole tanker called the 'Ben Robinson'.

In 1949 I left home to join the cadetship H.M.S. Conway and subsequently joined Ellerman Lines in 1951 as an apprentice. Just which year the Bristol Power Station went over to oil fuel I am not sure but this move caused dramatic changes to Ely harbour. Within years the tips had been dismantled and all that remains today are a few rotting piles roughly showing the positions of the coal tips.

At least to keep my boyhood memories alive the tanker jetty is still in use (1983) and on my last visit to Penarth I was just in time to see the 'Esso Manchester' sail for Avonmouth. Probably there are other readers who could add much more accurate information about these small ships and the lives of the people on them and those who loaded them than my sketchy boyhood memories can recall.

Penarth Dock was served by a good entrance basin but for all the fine coal hoists in view not one seemed to be in operation just after the war in 1946. Instead Penarth Dock seemed to be a fine place for laid-up ships and several lay there for years before taking up work again or leaving to be broken up.