The Welsh Town American Whalers Built and the Navy Walked Out Of: Milford Haven, Wales
The Vanished Isles
3,544 views
Milford Haven is one of the very few towns in Britain that was drawn on paper before anybody lived in it. An Act of Parliament of 1790 allowed Sir William Hamilton to build quays, docks, piers, a market and streets on Pembrokeshire land that had come to him from his first wife, Catherine Barlow. His nephew Charles Greville ruled a grid across the hillside above the water — and then had to find an industry to put in it.
He recruited one. American Quaker whalers, cut off from the London market after the Revolution by a heavy duty on foreign whale oil, sailed in from Dartmouth in Nova Scotia: thirteen ships, about fifty Quakers belonging to seven families, and 182 seamen, in 1792 or 1793 depending on which source you trust. The whaling lasted roughly thirty years, and coal gas killed it.
The Navy came next. A dockyard was leased at Hubberston Pill from 1796, and seven royal vessels went down the slipways — among them HMS Milford, launched in 1809 to a draught designed by the same French refugee engineer credited with the town plan. Then in 1814 the Admiralty could not agree a purchase price with Greville's heir, Robert Fulke Greville, and moved the whole establishment five miles across the water to a farm called Pater. That is why Pembroke Dock exists.
Milford waited seventy-four years for a third industry. Its docks opened in 1888 for transatlantic liners that went to Fishguard instead — but a steam trawler called Sybil came in that September, and by 1906 the town was being counted the sixth largest fishing port in the United Kingdom. By 1972 it had twelve trawlers left. The fourth industry, oil, had already arrived in 1960, and it arrived while the third one was still dying.
This is the story of a harbour that was only ever worth what somebody else wanted it for, and of a town that had to be invented four separate times to suit them.
What you'll learn
• How a town is manufactured by Act of Parliament: what the Hubberston and Pill Act of 1790 actually permitted, where Hamilton's land came from, why Greville went recruiting whalers in Nova Scotia rather than in Wales, and who really ruled the grid of streets — the French engineer Jean-Louis Barrallier, or the Americans who had seen New York and liked it.
• Why the whaling failed and what became of the whalers: the British southern fishery for sperm whales, spermaceti and the London street-lamp trade, the coal-gas retort that made whale oil obsolete, and the fact that most of the Starbucks and Folgers never left — which is why Milford has a Starbuck Road, a Nantucket Avenue, a Dartmouth Gardens and a meeting house of 1811 that is still open.
• How one refusal built a rival town: a dockyard on leased ground, the naval commission of 1809, Charles Greville's death that April, his brother's refusal of the Admiralty's valuation, and the flat shore with deep water close in at Pater that made Pembroke Dock possible from 1814.
• The fish and the oil: ice, rail and deep water; the famous "sixth largest fishing port in 1906" and why no source states what it was a ranking of; the 1946 record of about 60,000 tonnes landed; ten people ashore for every man at sea; why the Milford fleet fell before the Cod Wars rather than because of them; Esso, Texaco, Gulf and Amoco; the Texaco explosion of 1994 and the Sea Empress in 1996; and what one refinery, two gas terminals and a whelk fishery look like today.
Educational and historical content.
Key sources
— Dictionary of Welsh Biography — Greville, Charles Francis (1749-1809), founder of Milford Haven town (biography.wales)
— Heneb / Dyfed Archaeological Trust — Milford Haven Historic Landscape Character Area (heneb.org.uk)
— Milford Haven Museum — the town's whaling past and its fishing industry (milfordhavenmuseum.co.uk)
— Health and Safety Executive — The explosion and fires at the Texaco Refinery, Milford Haven, 24 July 1994 (hse.gov.uk)
— ITOPF — Sea Empress, Wales, UK, 1996 case study (itopf.org)
— and other sources
#history #Wales #Pembrokeshire #MilfordHaven #whaling #maritimehistory #TheVanishedIsles
ℹ️ About this video
Educational and historical content. The script, research and edit are the author's own, based on the sources listed in the description. The visual reconstructions and the narrator's voice are created with the help of AI, for illustrative purposes — these are not real recordings or authentic archival footage. Stories are simplified for a general audience and may contain small approximations. Purpose: to inform and to remember.
3 Comments
To sum it up , the narrative is fairly accurate, the photographic portrayal is absolutely rubbish.
As is the portrayal of Neyland and Pembroke Dock.
All in all it’s an absolute load of cobblers!
The Welsh Town American Whalers Built and the Navy Walked Out Of: Milford Haven, Wales
The Vanished Isles
3,544 views
Milford Haven is one of the very few towns in Britain that was drawn on paper before anybody lived in it. An Act of Parliament of 1790 allowed Sir William Hamilton to build quays, docks, piers, a market and streets on Pembrokeshire land that had come to him from his first wife, Catherine Barlow. His nephew Charles Greville ruled a grid across the hillside above the water — and then had to find an industry to put in it.
He recruited one. American Quaker whalers, cut off from the London market after the Revolution by a heavy duty on foreign whale oil, sailed in from Dartmouth in Nova Scotia: thirteen ships, about fifty Quakers belonging to seven families, and 182 seamen, in 1792 or 1793 depending on which source you trust. The whaling lasted roughly thirty years, and coal gas killed it.
The Navy came next. A dockyard was leased at Hubberston Pill from 1796, and seven royal vessels went down the slipways — among them HMS Milford, launched in 1809 to a draught designed by the same French refugee engineer credited with the town plan. Then in 1814 the Admiralty could not agree a purchase price with Greville's heir, Robert Fulke Greville, and moved the whole establishment five miles across the water to a farm called Pater. That is why Pembroke Dock exists.
Milford waited seventy-four years for a third industry. Its docks opened in 1888 for transatlantic liners that went to Fishguard instead — but a steam trawler called Sybil came in that September, and by 1906 the town was being counted the sixth largest fishing port in the United Kingdom. By 1972 it had twelve trawlers left. The fourth industry, oil, had already arrived in 1960, and it arrived while the third one was still dying.
This is the story of a harbour that was only ever worth what somebody else wanted it for, and of a town that had to be invented four separate times to suit them.
What you'll learn
• How a town is manufactured by Act of Parliament: what the Hubberston and Pill Act of 1790 actually permitted, where Hamilton's land came from, why Greville went recruiting whalers in Nova Scotia rather than in Wales, and who really ruled the grid of streets — the French engineer Jean-Louis Barrallier, or the Americans who had seen New York and liked it.
• Why the whaling failed and what became of the whalers: the British southern fishery for sperm whales, spermaceti and the London street-lamp trade, the coal-gas retort that made whale oil obsolete, and the fact that most of the Starbucks and Folgers never left — which is why Milford has a Starbuck Road, a Nantucket Avenue, a Dartmouth Gardens and a meeting house of 1811 that is still open.
• How one refusal built a rival town: a dockyard on leased ground, the naval commission of 1809, Charles Greville's death that April, his brother's refusal of the Admiralty's valuation, and the flat shore with deep water close in at Pater that made Pembroke Dock possible from 1814.
• The fish and the oil: ice, rail and deep water; the famous "sixth largest fishing port in 1906" and why no source states what it was a ranking of; the 1946 record of about 60,000 tonnes landed; ten people ashore for every man at sea; why the Milford fleet fell before the Cod Wars rather than because of them; Esso, Texaco, Gulf and Amoco; the Texaco explosion of 1994 and the Sea Empress in 1996; and what one refinery, two gas terminals and a whelk fishery look like today.
Educational and historical content.
Key sources
— Dictionary of Welsh Biography — Greville, Charles Francis (1749-1809), founder of Milford Haven town (biography.wales)
— Heneb / Dyfed Archaeological Trust — Milford Haven Historic Landscape Character Area (heneb.org.uk)
— Milford Haven Museum — the town's whaling past and its fishing industry (milfordhavenmuseum.co.uk)
— Health and Safety Executive — The explosion and fires at the Texaco Refinery, Milford Haven, 24 July 1994 (hse.gov.uk)
— ITOPF — Sea Empress, Wales, UK, 1996 case study (itopf.org)
— and other sources
#history #Wales #Pembrokeshire #MilfordHaven #whaling #maritimehistory #TheVanishedIsles
ℹ️ About this video
Educational and historical content. The script, research and edit are the author's own, based on the sources listed in the description. The visual reconstructions and the narrator's voice are created with the help of AI, for illustrative purposes — these are not real recordings or authentic archival footage. Stories are simplified for a general audience and may contain small approximations. Purpose: to inform and to remember.