This Naval gun stands outside the Golden Lion in Port Isaac. It was Salvaged from the Wreck of the British Collier SS Milly, a bulk cargo ship designed or used to carry coal.
It was 13:55 on September 6th 1918 two and a quarter miles west of Tintagel Head and Milly was travelling at 10 knots and zig-zagging when a torpedo fired by UB87 (commanded by Kapitänleutnant Karl Petri) was spotted 100 yards to port. It struck SS Milly next to the No3 Hold and she sank stern first in just 5 minuets, drowning deck boy William Sydney Eaton, aged 17 from Cardiff, and Mess Steward Robert Hocking, aged 18 from Plymouth. Thirty One other crew members who made it into the lifeboats were picked up 15 Minuets later by the SS Madame Brook.
Kapitänleutnant Karl Petri and the crew of UB87 went on to torpedo and damage the British passenger steamer Persic 40 miles NW of the Scilllys on the 7th September 1918 then on the 9th September they sank the British Passenger Steamer Missanabie 52 miles SxE1/2E of Daunts Rock Ireland killing 45 people.
In 1991 the stern mounted gun that had been fitted for Millys defence at the outbreak of World War One, was salvaged then placed outside the Golden Lion, a memorial to the men who died.
17 February 2023
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