The Cardiff Merchant Seaman's memorial sculpture in the form of a sleeping face within a ship's hull was commissioned by Cardiff Bay Development Corporation, Merchant Navy Memorial Committee and Cardiff County Council in 1994.

The memorial is set in a circular mosaic created in 1997 by Louise Shenstone and Adrian Butler. Inscribed around edge of the mosaic are the words:

IN MEMORY OF THE MERCHANT SEAFARERS FROM THE PORTS OF BARRY PENARTH CARDIFF WHO DIED IN TIMES OF WAR

'Tiger Bay and Butetown provided a high proportion of Cardiff's merchant seamen and in 1994, the Merchant Navy Memorial Committee began campaigning for a monument to the many killed in war. Brought up on his father's stories of life as a wartime merchant seafarer, Brian Fell sought out Britain's last hydraulic riveting workshop and learnt this disappearing skill in order to 'seam' steel sections into the sculpture's two distinct aspects - a timeless face and beached ship's hull.'
Ref: http://www.pmsa.org.uk/pmsa-database/11872/

The memorial won the Lord Mayor's Civic Award 1997.