Volume Nine - Pre-Victorian to the present day - even more aspects - The Missions to Seamen at Penarth . . .

The dockmasters of Cardiff, Penarth and Barry wrote to the Mission in support:

“We emphasise the fact that in 1894, 63,125 seamen were engaged, and 44,885 seamen were discharged, in our three ports alone. Of the 7,749 ships that entered and left, a large proportion were detained for some hours, at least, outside our docks, waiting for the tide to rise sufficiently for them to enter, and were this open to your visitation. Further, we know that, with contrary winds, fleets of over a hundred vessels are detained in our Channel, sometimes for days together and are glad of anyone to visit them.”

A newspaper report of May 1908 provides further insight into the work and dedication of the Mission to Seamen at Penarth:-

Mission to Seamen - Bristol Channel Work - 'The Hon. A. Lyttelton, M.P., presided at the annual meeting of the Mission to Seamen, held on Monday at Church House, Westminster. The receipts for 1907 (including £12,446 19s 3d brought forward) were £68,900 19s 3d. After meeting expenditure £10,282 was carried forward. In the year, 215 services and Bible readings were conducted on board ships in the Bristol Channel, with an attendance of 1,361 seamen.

It is a matter of the deepest regret that the Rev. E. A. H. Coombes, who has been doing splendid work afloat in the Bristol Channel for the past seven years, had accepted the living of North Stoke and Ipsden. His visits to the lightships and islets as well as to the wind-bound vessels in the Bristol Channel had been greatly valued and would be sorely missed.

The old sailing vessel which had for many years conveyed the chaplain and readers to the anchorages in the upper part of the Bristol Channel had been discarded in favour of a motor launch, the Morning Star, the finest in the mission, of 16 tons and 24.6 horse-power, which had been dedicated.

The report went on quote remarks made at Penarth by Mr. A. Beasley, of the T.V.R., that he had often seen the Rev. E. A. H. Coombes leaving the dock on the deck of the Eirene in weather when he should not have liked to venture, and he had seen him return, begrimed and black, almost like a coal trimmer, and he had thought what a strong sense of duty Mr. Coombes presented.