TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 691 



dimensions were considered, at the time, ample for the largest class of shipping 

 frequenting the port. At that period the number of steam in comparison with 

 sailing vessels was insignificant, and the Transatlantic service between this country 

 and America was only in contemplation. 



Some difficulty was encomitered in the construction of these works, as they had 

 to be carried out without impeding the traffic in the harbour. They were com- 

 pleted in December 1851, so far as the dock was concerned. An additional half-tide 

 basin and lock, at the upper end of the dock, was commenced in 1856, and completed 

 in 1861. 



An immediate effect was felt in the increased tonnage of the shipping, and in the 

 superior description and size of the vessels frequenting the port. 



In the year 1853, Mr. Armstrong (now Sir William Armstrong) was consulted, 

 and in 1856 hydraulic power was first applied to work the existing hand gearing of 

 the lock by a system of shafting, which has since been superseded by more perfect 

 adaptation of the power, but the machinery, nevertheless, has worked without failure 

 up to the present time. 



As far back as the year 1846, attention was directed to the foreshore of the sea, 

 westward of the harbour entrance, as a site for floating dock accommodation, and 

 His Grace the late Duke of Beaufort consulted Mr. Brunei on the subject, and in 

 his report of October 1846, whilst strongly condemning a project again revived for 

 convei-ting the river into a float, he strongly recommended the construction of a 

 dock on the foreshore, on the site of the present South Dock. An Act was obtained 

 in 1847 for its construction, and in 1850 the works were commenced. These docks 

 are constructed in great part seaward of the original high-water mark, and the 

 geological features of the strata, exposed in the excavation, were somewhat of an 

 extraordinary character, consisting : — 



1. Of made ground, ranging in depth from 20 to 26 feet, composed of gravel and 

 boulder stones, which must have been transported from a considerable distance, by 

 the action of river floods, probably from the neighbourhood of Llandore. 



2. Peat, vidth leaves, trees, &c., 2 feet. 



3. Blue or marine clay, 8 feet 6 inches, containing shells imbedded in it, 

 ' Scrobicularia piperata,' stated to be still living on the coast. 



4. Peat, 2 feet 10 inches. 



5. Blue marine clay, 4 feet 1 inch. 



6. Peat with trees, 3 feet 1 inch, overljing the gravel foundation upon which 

 the works are founded. 



At two points the foimdations had to be taken to an extraordinary depth in 

 the lower peat, arising from the depression of the gravel at those points, apparently 

 ancient river beds, and in the peat were found various trees supposed to be the 

 remains of an ancient forest. Antlers of the red deer were also found in this 

 stratum. 



The existence of this upper bed of marine clay beneath the made ground indi- 

 cated that a dock might be constructed on the site with great facility -without 

 danger of percolation from the tidal waters, and the result proved the accuracy of 

 this conclusion. The works were commenced in 1854 and completed in 1859. 

 They consist of a trumpet-mouth entrance basin leading to a half-tide basin en- 

 trance 70 feet in width, ^^^th a depth of water over the cill of 24 feet at 

 H.W.O.S.T., a half-tide basin or outer dock of 4 acres area leading to an entrance 

 lock 300 feet in length and 60 feet in ^xddth, with a depth over the inner cill of 

 22 feet 6 inches, the dock level being kept level vnih the tide of the day bv pump- 

 ing from the half-tide basin in order to prevent accretion in the dock by the 

 admission of the tidal water heavily charged with detritus. 



In 1860 the Great Western Railway Company completed their line into Swan- 

 sea, together with certain provisions for shipping coal by hydraulic machinery in the 

 North Dock, and in 1863 a railway was completed from Neath to Swansea, by which 

 the great Welsh coal-field was brought into immediate commiuiication with the 

 port, and it became a matter of great importance that this coal shoidd be conveyed 

 to the South Docks for shipment. This involved the construction of two massive 

 opening bridges for a double line of broad gauge railway, one across the New Cut 



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