Volume Eight - Pre-Victorian to the present day - more aspects - Mr Martin's Recollections of Penarth Dock . . .

He goes on to describes the 'antiquated' system in place for the coal tippers. They could potentially have to mix four different types of coal. Their pad of shipping invoices had three sections upon which they had to record the name of the wagon owner, the wagon number, the gross, tare and nett weight. They would have to enter that information three times without any duplicating aids. That would generate four sheets which had to be updated as each wagon was processed - at the rate of about fifty wagons per hour tipped! It was 'a real busy job'.

There were three women employed amongst all the men. Two typists and an 'old' cleaner who had to light seven coal fires in the Dock Manager's office and then clean the linoleum flooring. She scrubbed the floors and stone steps every morning because of the multitude of comings and goings of sea captains and dock workers alike. The lady was one Mrs Petherick who lived on Maughan Street and who Harry describes as a 'hard working woman'.

The dock gave employment to various grades including the Dock Managers, the coal shipping, traffic, clerical staff Traffic Inspectors, Foremen, guards, shunters, pointsmen, couplers, signalmen. He comments that there were no signal boxes at the dockside but there used to seven manual signal boxes between Cardiff and Penarth which had all been replaced during electrification.

Harry recalls that besides signalmen they employed number-takers, coal-tippers and trimmers, coal-weighers, capstan-men, dock and channel pilots, berthing-men, dock-gate-men, boatmen, dredging-men, tugboat men, ships-watermen, subway toll collectors, dock clerks, telephone attendant, switchboard operators and messenger boys.

Many of the shipping lines and colliery companies had local representatives who had responsibilities such as to examine the coal and make sure that it was ready for shipping. Other employment was provided for the dock police, crane drivers, general cargo workers, carpenters, general labourers, storemen, dock porters, goods porters and plate-layers. Then there were the men employed at the hydraulic house which supplied power to the dock and the harbour. The coal tips, cranes and the loco sheds all required repair-men. Then we had the loco shed supervisory staff, loco drivers, firemen and locomotive cleaners.