Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - A History of Penarth Dock by Roy Thorne . . .

Chapter Seven - 1945 to the final closure in 1962

At the end of the Second World War there was no temporary prosperity as there had been after 1918. Our country had exhausted its resources through six years of war, and the overseas demand for Welsh coal had declined as these figures show [203] : -

This shows a tremendous fall in trade compared with the halcyon days before 1914. The dock was again "temporarily” closed for export and import trade.

By 1948 there were four coal tips at the dock, which had been used for coal bunkering during the war, and one crane. There were four tips at the Ely Harbour.

The dock was actually open for access to the Penarth Pontoon, Slipway and Ship Repairing Company's facilities, and for the "laying-up" of vessels. The Slipway on the north quay at the River Ely had been closed in 1923. Three companies had petrol facilities at the harbour works.

In 1949 two famous majestic four masted barques were "laid-up" at Penarth Dock. They were the "Pamir" and "Passat.” They were the "Pamir" and "Passat.” Soon after their stay at the dock they were due to be scrapped, but they were bought by Herr Heinz Schliewen, a West German shipowner who modernised them at Kiel in 1951 and installed six cylinder oil engines in both. He hoped to make them economical.