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

Tom usually worked around the Bristol Channel. The most common freight was coal when leaving South Wales, and grain when returning. Once, in the early 1930’s, Dad remembers him coming back from a long trip to South Africa with a monkey. Back home at Salop Street, the monkey climbed up the curtain as he was frightened. After a few days, he scratched Tom’s wife, Phoebe. The monkey had to go. Tom took him up to Victoria Park in Cardiff, where there was a small zoo, and put him in a cage there.

In 1937, Tom travelled as far as Murmansk, where he saw women loading ships. He also went to Buenos Aires. On these longer trips, conditions for the sailors were basic. Tramp steamers rarely had sleeping quarters, so he often had to sleep in ‘the chain locker, in the focsle’. This is a reference to the anchor chains, which were stored in the bow, also known as the ‘forecastle’. He would be so tired that he would sleep on top of the chains.

The Pamir in Penarth dock with the Passat just visible to the left.