[6] Frustration at the lack of development at Cardiff led to rival docks being opened at Penarth in 1865 and Barry, Wales in 1889.

By 1913, this had risen to 10,700,000 tons, making Cardiff second only to Barry, Wales as the largest coal exporting dock in the world.

The boom proved short-lived, however; oil was growing in importance as a maritime fuel, and the terms of the Treaty of Versailles soon flooded Europe with cheap German reparation coal.

From 1910 onwards capacity issues meant that the more modern and less tidal Barry Docks took over as the largest volume export point of coal.

[2] By 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression which followed the General Strike in 1926, coal exports had fallen to below 5 million tonnes and dozens of locally owned ships were laid-up.

Despite intense activity at the port during the Second World War (which led to the attentions of the German Luftwaffe during the Cardiff Blitz), coal exports continued to decline, finally ceasing in 1964.

Merchant seamen arrived in Cardiff from all over the world, only staying for as long as it took to discharge and reload their ships: consequently many murders and lesser crimes went unsolved and unpunished, the perpetrators having sailed for other ports.

In Victorian times, the name "Tiger Bay" was used in popular literature and slang (especially that of sailors) to denote any dock or seaside neighbourhood which shared a similar notoriety for danger.

[13] The Cardiff Bay Development Corporation was created in 1987 to counter the effects of economic depression in this run-down area.