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

2d) Ivor Mules and Arthur Mules

A number of men in the families mentioned in these recollections served their country in the forces. However, only two paid the ultimate price. These were both members of the Mules family. Ivor Mules died at sea. Arthur Mules was shot in battle. They both died in the third year of The Great War, in 1917. The reason for the death of young Ivor Mules contributed to the strategy (and the resulting battle) in which Arthur was killed. This is their story.

i) Ivor William Mules – Ivor was the son of my great grandfather’s older brother. He was born in 1899. In 1917, he moved around the corner to 14 Maughan Terrace.

That same spring, after more than two years of stalemate in the trenches, the German Kaiser decided that if he could not defeat the British army, he would starve the British people. The plan was to sink merchant navy ships, some of which were bringing food from across the Atlantic. Their weapon was the submarine.

Ivor was just 17, but he decided to help the war effort by joining the Merchant Navy as an Ordinary Seaman. He served on the Steam Ship Warnow, sailing out of Dundee. On the 2nd May 1917, the ship called at Penarth to pick up a cargo of railway material. left - s.s. Warnow

The Warnow then headed south-west down the Seven Estuary to a secret destination, probably France. Off Trevose Head, on the North Cornwall coast, it was attacked by enemy submarine UC48, captained by Kurt Ramien. The ship was sunk. Ivor and 13 crew mates, including the Master, drowned. The Chief Officer and 5 men clung to an upturned lifeboat, and were rescued, landing at Penzance.