The Glamorganshire Canal once ran from Merthyr down to Cardiff, where it met the sea through a sea-lock at the southern end of what became Butetown. Before the Bute Docks were built, this was the port of Cardiff, and a small one.
In those days, Marie Trevelyan says, a lady dressed in black used to haunt the old sea-lock. She seemed to be looking for something she could not find. In the twilight she would go down to the lock and come back again, wringing her hands. Sailors and others knew all about her but were afraid to speak to her. Sometimes she held out her hands to people as though begging, and then hurried off again to the water's edge.
One evening a skipper finally asked what he could do for her. She asked him to take her in a boat to the mouth of the River Ely, and promised that he would be well rewarded. Keen for the money, he agreed and rowed her out. He had never carried such a weight. The boat sat so low that he was afraid it would go under, and he was about to say so when the lady told him, "Land me quickly, and draw up the boat."
He did. She beckoned him to follow and led him away from the river into the woods, where she pointed to a stone. He lifted it and found a crock full of gold coins. "I have found them at last. They are yours," she said, and disappeared.
The skipper went back again and again for the gold and became rich. People wondered where his money came from, but he told no one until just before his death.
The canal sea-lock is long gone under the modern Bay developments, and the woods at the Ely mouth have been built over, so the pin is approximate.
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