btained the first act for the construction of a
dock which (now known as the West Bute dock) was opened in 1839 and
measures (with its basin) 19-1/2 acres. The opening of the Taff Vale
railway in 1840 and of the South Wales railway to Cardiff in 1850
necessitated further accommodation, and the trustees of the marquess
(who died in 1848) began in 1851 and opened in 1855 the East Bute dock
and basin measuring 46-1/4 acres. The Rhymney railway to Cardiff was
completed in 1858 and the trade of the port so vastly increased that the
shipment of coal and coke went up from 4562 tons in 1839 to 1,796,000
tons in 1860. In 1864 the Bute trustees unsuccessfully sought powers for
constructing three additional docks to cost two millions sterling, but
under the more limited powers granted in 1866, the Roath basin (12
acres) was opened in 1874, and (under a substituted act of 1882) the
Roath dock (33 acres) was opened in 1887. All these docks were
constructed by the Bute family at a cost approaching three millions
sterling. Still they fell far short of the requirements of the district
for in 1865 the Taff Vale Railway Company opened a dock of 26 acres
under the headland at Penarth, while in 1884 a group of colliery owners,
dissatisfied with their treatment at Cardiff, obtained powers to
construct docks at Barry which are now 114 acres in extent. The Bute
trustees in 1885 acquired the Glamorgan canal and its dock, and in the
following year obtained an act for vesting their various docks and the
canal in a company now known as the Cardiff Railway Company. The South
Bute dock of 50-1/2 acres, authorized in 1894 and capable of
accommodating the largest vessels afloat, was opened in 1907, bringing
the whole dock area of Cardiff (including timber ponds) to about 210
acres. There are also ten private graving and floating docks and one
public graving dock. There is ample equipment of fixed and movable
staiths and cranes of various sizes up to 70 tons, the Lewis-Hunter
patent cranes being largely used for shipping coal owing to their
minimizing the breakage of coal and securing its even distribution. The
landing of foreign cattle is permitted by the Board of Trade, and there
are cattle lairs and abattoirs near the Cardiff wharf. The total exports
of the Cardiff docks in 1906 amounted to 8,767,502 tons, of which
8,433,629 tons were coal, coke and patent fuel, 151,912 were iron and
steel and their manufactures, and 181,076 tons of general merchandi