Volume Eight - Pre-Victorian to the present day - more aspects - More storms and their effects . . .

This chapter continues the theme of random newspaper reports and other accounts of storms in the notorious Bristol Channel, Severn Sea and further afield including their effect upon the locality, its shipping, tradesmen, and the mariners who braved the normal and abnormal seas for their daily bread.

• December 1907 - Coals to Newcastle Penarth - The loss of the s.s. 'Gatesgarth'.

The s.s. 'Gatesgarth' together with her sisters were regular visitors to Penarth Dock and during December 1903 'Gatesgarth' was involved in a Penarth record for loading coal at a rate of 750 tons per hour. 'Gatesgarth', 'Dalegarth' and 'Throstlegarth' belonged to Messrs. R. and J. H. Rea of London. The Evening Express [135] [361] of 3rd December 1903 reported 'The coal was contained in nearly 700 wagons, each of which had to be lifted a height of 30ft. above the quay level and then lowered. It is believed that the despatch creates a new record'.

s.s. 'Bangarth' sister to the 'Gatesgarth' being loaded at the four coal tips in the basin which apparently gave Penarth Dock the reputation of being the fastest coal-loading port in the world by 1908!

But why was she importing coal to Penarth? The answer is simply that Welsh steam coal is not the most efficient in the production of town or consumer gas; gas coal, as used at the nearby Grangetown Gas Works yields greater usable combustible gases. She was regularly contracted to load gas coal at Partington on the Manchester Ship Canal for destinations at the South Wales and South Coast of England ports. It was on one such voyage that she and her crew met Davy Jones. The Evening Express takes up the story:-

Gatesgarth Gone? - Wreckage washed ashore - 'Grave anxiety is felt in Liverpool concerning the fate of the Liverpool steamer 'Gatesgarth'. As reported in yesterday's "Evening Express," the vessel left the Mersey last Tuesday for Penarth with coal. When the vessel sailed, the gale was raging.