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THE commercial history of
Cardiff begins with the present century, and its development is strictly
contemporaneous with that of the mineral wealth of the county;
archaeologically it dates back to the first century, when Aulus Didias
founded a Roman station at the mouth of the River Taff.
Situated at the end of the
Taff valley, the town furnished the most accessible outlet for the products
of the minerals in the hill districts to the northward, and it was further
endowed with the great natural advantages of a roadstead, a harbour, and a
river whence the minerals could be shipped. These given advantages, as well
as the knowledge of the wealth lying hidden close at hand, became fully
realized towards the close of the eighteenth century, and next year, 1898,
will mark the centenary of the first serious attempt to open up the produce
of the surrounding country, for it was ’in 1798 that the Glamorganshire
Canal from Merthyr Tydvil to Cardiff, 25 miles distant, at which point it
was connected with the Bristol Channel by a sea-lock, was completed and
opened.
So great was the increase of
traffic following the opening of the canal that thirty-three years later it
was found necessary to make the first of the Bute Docks, and the Marquis of
Bute applied for advice to some of the leading engineers and nautical
experts of that day, Mr. Telford, Mr. Green, and Sir William Cubitt,
Captains Beaufort and W. H. Smyth, R.N., the latter being subsequently
entrusted with the chief direction of the work, and upon its completion
obtaining the post of Dockmaster at the Bute West Dock. Twelve years later a
second dock was found necessary to accommodate the traffic, and on this
occasion, Sir John Rennie was engaged in conjunction with Mr. W. S. Clarke,
who designed the Bute East Dock, the contractors for carrying out the work
being Messrs. Hemmingway and Pearson.
In 1866, when the present
marquis had succeeded to the title, the trustees who then acted for his
lordship under the late marquis’s will, applied for an Act to construct the
Roath Basin, and on this occasion they first sought and enlisted Mr.
Abernethy’s services as consulting engineer to prepare the parliamentary
plans. This Roath Basin of 12 acres became in its turn insufficient for the
requirements of the port, and in 1882, together with the late Mr.
McConnochie, C.E., he prepared new designs for the Roath Dock, which was
opened on August 24th, 1887, by the Marquis of Bute. This fine dock has an
area of 33 acres, and is upwards of 2,400 feet long and 600 feet wide, and
the depth of water varies from 36 feet to 25 feet, according to the tide. It
is entirely enclosed with walls of masonry, thus affording the largest
practicable extent of quayage, as well as the greatest facilities for
loading and discharging vessels. The length of quay space, including the
jetty, is 7520 lineal feet, or nearly 1½ mile, while the area for the
storage of cargoes and the general carrying on of the trade of the dock is
over 60 acres, and its capacity as a dock is equal to 5,000,000 tons per
annum. It is approached through the Roath Basin by a magnificent lock—the
largest in the world —600 feet by 80 feet, with a depth over the sills of 36
feet at ordinary spring tides and 26 feet at neaps. The moveable hydraulic
cranes by which the coal is shipped with the least possible breakage, and
which by being moveable on rails obviates the necessity of shifting the
vessel from its berth, or from hatchway to hatchway, while loading, are the
invention of Sir W. T. Lewis, Bart., general manager of the Bute estates,
and are most efficient both in the saving of time and in the lessened labour
of trimming the coal when shot into the vessel.
The increase in tonnage and
carrying capacity of steamers plying to Cardiff for coal a few years later,
called for additional, and even better, accommodation than that already
found there, and in 1894 the Bute Dock Company, who had, by an Act obtained
in 1888, secured sufficient additional foreshore to construct a new dock
within the limits authorized, again successfully applied to Parliament for
power to effect the work. Mr. Abernethy, in conjunction with Mr. Hunter, the
Engineer to the Bute Docks Company, designed and submitted the scheme. The
requisite area has been reclaimed by an embankment since obtaining the Act
in 1894, and the actual work is now on the point of being begun in earnest,
and is upon a scale which should meet the requirements of the port for many
years to come.
The entrance lock will be 750
feet by go feet, and will be approached by an Outer Tidal Basin, recessed
clear of the navigable channel leading to the existing dock entrances so as
not to interfere with the shipping passing to and fro, and there will be a
depth of 41 feet 6 inches over the sill at high water ordinary spring tides,
and 31 feet 6 inches at high water ordinary neap tides.
The dock itself will have an
area of 42 acres, 2570 feet in length and 650 feet in width, the depth being
46 feet 8 inches below the coping, and with a varying water depth of 37 feet
to 32 feet. Between this new dock and the Roath Dock there will be a
communication passage 300 feet wide for the first 700 feet of its length,
and 80 feet wide for the remainder of its junction with the Roath Dock. By
means of this passage large steamers will be able to pass to the new deep
entrance lock and thence seaward. At present, owing to the defective size of
the Roath Basin Lock, passing the larger steamers ;n and out involves
levelling down the water in the Roath Basin itself, and consequently a
serious waste of water, as well as loss of time. The Parliamentary estimate
for this new dock accommodation was £585,717 for the embankment, £42,935,
and for the railways and sidings, £8291, making a total of £636,944. |
