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

There was one part of the dock that was in use however and this was far end away from the sea where the Penarth Pontoon and Ship Repair Company had a floating pontoon and used one or two nearby berths with crane facilities for its repair business. For a few years business seemed quite brisk and there were some regular users of these facilities who by virtue of the trade they were engaged in found Penarth a handy port for repairs. The Great Western Railway Ships 'St. Julian', and 'St. David', also the small railway cargo ships 'Sambur' and 'Roebuck' used the pontoon, but by far the most frequent users were the flat iron colliers which normally loaded coal at Barry Docks for London.

It was a simple matter for them to return light ship from London and steam the extra 10 miles or so round to Penarth where the complete repair, dry docking and re-paint was carried out. The London Power Company's 'Charles Parsons', 'Sit Josef Swann', 'George Balfour', 'William Pearman', 'Sir Leonard Pearce', 'Sir Alexander Kennedy', 'John Hopkinson', 'Ferrant', 'Tyndall, and 'Colonel Crompton' together with the Fulham Borough Council ships 'Fulham', 'Fulham II' through to 'Fulham IX' all provided in turn a steady flow of business for the repair firm. These ships all seemed to have an excellent record of safety since the dangerous passage around Land's End and up the channel to London did not as far as I know ever claim any of them as a victim. image left - The famous 4-masted barque 'Pamir' laid-up as a floating grain warehouse in Penarth Dock. [290]

Two very famous ships caused a great deal of excitement when the 4-masted barques 'Pamir' and 'Passat', having come from Australia with grain were laid-up as floating warehouses for a while at Penarth. Later these ships were discharged for Barry where unfortunately it was found that a considerable number of four-legged creatures had shipped aboard. The 'Pamir' was lost in 1958 with just six survivors being saved.