Penarth Dock, South Wales - the heritage and legacy

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Volume Eight - Pre-Victorian to the present day - more aspects - Chains at Penarth Dock - Macey, Mules and Wallace Family History . . .

1) The Macey Chain

1a) James Henry Macey - There are map readers, and then there are those who can navigate by the stars. James Macey was a star man. He could also play a honky-tonk-piano and an accordion, though not at the same time. Mam describes him as a man of undiscovered talents.

James Macey was my maternal grandfather. By 1922, aged 20, he had moved out of the family home in Splott, and was lodging at 13 Ludlow Street, Penarth. He continued to work on ships going out of Penarth Dock.

Mam remembers being told that her father once got on a ship with a cargo of coal and sailed around Cape Horn before docking at Valparaiso, Chile. He was therefore known as a ‘Cape Horner’. Jim worked in the docks throughout the early 1920’s.

During this time, he met my grandmother, Mabel Mules. She was a couple of years older than him, but he began to write letters and Christmas cards to her.

In one of the letters, he wrote the following poem:

Wherever I may be, on land or at sea.
Fair fortune and prosperity. I always think of thee.
You’ve taken another, and think he is true.
But always remember, that I’ll wait for you.

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