Before the railway reached Pembroke Dock, ships provided long distance transport for passengers and  cargo. Advertisements from the 1840s remind Pembrokeshire Herald readers of schooner space for "Pembroke Dock", and of steamers calling at "Pater".

 

The paper's Pembroke Dock shipping news, for just one week in this period, records thirteen arrivals and six departures. Incoming cargoes are mostly of timber and coal. Outgoing shipments are of culm (coal), ballast and general goods