[BITList] Fwd: 1914-18 the Merchant Service

[Michael Feltham]

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>> Dear All,
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>> I was in the company of XXXXXX last week and she quite rightly pointed out what I had not consciously noticed; that there has been a very significant absence of any real mention to our knowledge on TV or elsewhere in the various 100 year commemorations of the outbreak of the First World War - of the Merchant Service. Plenty on the Army, Navy and even the Flying Corps. So, I was interested to see that, coincidentally, on the Old Conway chat group website there were similar comments. I hope you will not feel it amiss if I repeat some of what one of the Old Conway's had, in my opinion, very well observed and posted.
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>> There was even a short piece on BBC radio 4 the other day where a  historian was pointing out that the WW1 commemorations are very army/land focussed and that we are doing an injustice to all the sailors who were killed as well. It soon transpired that she meant the RN and made absolutely no mention of the MN (or the Mercantile Marine/Merchant Service as it then was. The term Merchant Navy being awarded ten years after the war in 1928 by the King in recognition of the service’s role and losses).
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>> Then a quote from a history of the First War book:
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>> 'As a nation we relied totally on our merchant fleet to bring in food and raw materials and to despatch troops and material to fighting fronts around the world. Germany’s perceptive and relentless attack on our merchant shipping through her submarine campaign, ably supported by her armed merchant raiders, came close to bringing the United Kingdom to its knees. Over eight million tons of British ships, nearly 40% of the nation’s total capacity had been lost. At least 17,000 men of the mercantile marine were killed.These losses were unsustainable so if the mercantile marine could not hold the breach the war would be lost. Knowing they held the country’s fate in their hands, officers and men held on grimly, determined not to beaten. They voyaged again and again under the ever-present threats of explosions, fire, injury and death at sea. When the war ground to its exhausted conclusion Britain and her allies had prevailed but, as Field Marshall Wellington remarked to General Blucher after the battle of Waterloo it had been “the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life”. The war laid bare the country’s total reliance on her merchant service, no less reliance than on her Royal Navy. Despite enormous loss of life and destruction the merchant fleet had quietly and loyally persevered. The nation realised that it had faced starvation if the merchant service had not overcome the savagery unleashed upon it. Praise for the merchant service’s heroism was on everyone’s lips. That praise was expressed succinctly in a speech to the British Chamber of Shipping on 25th February 1921 by Mr J. W. Davies, the American Ambassador in London: “I deem it no exaggeration to say that whether in war or in peace the British Mercantile Marine has rendered more service to more men of more nations than any other human agency.” His words would be echoed by Sir Winston Churchill in his World War II tribute to The Few. Whatever the politicians’ reasons for going to war there were to be unexpected consequences. The people believed their terrible sacrifices would create a better world for all. Expectations were raised, people demanded change, and the established order was challenged. Merchant sea captains had played arguably the most pivotal role in the war, they too anticipated better recognition and representation….'
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>> So to set the record straight, the first British vessel lost in WW1 was the tanker 'San Wifrido' lost on 3rd August 1914: she hit a mine off Cuxhaven and the crew were taken prisoner.
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