The dominance of 'King Coal'
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Reflections on how the
South Wales ports faced the Second World War and some of the problems they faced. In the two years before the outbreak of war in 1939, international events
persuaded the British government to spend some time looking at how Britain’s many
ports and harbours would be used should hostilities break out. As with the First World
War, it was realised that the South Wales Ports would quickly assume a pivotal role in
dealing with the millions of tons of imports that Britain needed each year. The Bristol
Channel would become even more important should, as was likely, German naval activity
prevent the use of the North Sea ports of the Humber, Tees and Tyne and severely restrict
the use of the Thames and London. The outcome of such massive changes in the working of
the British ports would be that millions of tons of goods and commodities of all kinds
would be diverted to harbours and ports that were not built, equipped or staffed to handle
the cargoes that they might have to accept.
The port and transit system of the British Isles had developed
over many decades in response to the peacetime demands of a heavily industrialised
country. Ports developed in accordance with the needs and demands of their associated
hinterlands. London and Liverpool developed massive dock systems devoted to general cargo
handling; basically any kind of good from fruit and cereals to meat and leather oil and
timber or cotton and silk could be handled and stored. The massive dock systems of these
ports were matched by the enormous transit sheds where goods were laid out and sorted
prior to despatch on railway systems dedicated to the quick and efficient distribution of
goods to the surrounding towns and cities
Other ports, such as Cardiff, Barry and Swansea were committed to
one dominant trade, the export of coal. Railways and dock equipment were not laid out to
distribute goods inwards but rather to move one specific commodity outwards and overseas.
Although the South Wales ports had made considerable efforts to diversify into other goods
in the inter-war period, they were still, in 1939, predominantly coal export ports and
poorly equipped for general cargoes.
Wartime problems at the Welsh ports
1940-41 takes the story further |