MERCHANT NAVY IN WAR

Southland Times, Issue 24138, 29 May 1940, Page 4

MERCHANT NAVY IN WAR

MAGNIFICENT PART PLAYED HAZARDOUS WORK OF MERCHANTMEN “We should never forget that it was the blockade of Germany by the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy that made the victories of the Army in France in the last war ’possible,” declared Captain A. S. Dalgliesh during an interesting talk to the Invercargill Rotary Club yesterday on the Merchant Navy and the part it had played in history. Right through the ages the merchantmen had faced perils in peace and war, but none so hazardous as those which confronted them in time of war. He referred to the position in Europe today and said that the merchantmen were playing their parts in the transport of men, munitions and food.

“In their work in the Norwegian campaign and in other spheres, the men of the Merchant Navy have been bombed and attacked and have had to fight just as the soldiers in the field,” he said. “They have transported every British soldier to the theatres of war; they have carried munitions and food. In the Straits of Dover today there are many merchant ships, supposed to be non-combatants, exposed to bombardment. If Calais goes down, Folkestone will be endangered and will not be usable as a naval base. Dover Downs is a graveyard of ships at the present time. “The raider has always been with us and in spite of all the organization by the State against this weapon no remedy has been found to counteract it entirely,” he said. “And those of us who go to sea appreciate the difficulties which exist. Recently one authority likened the locating of one of the raiders not to finding a needle in a haystack but to a needle in a haystack constantly on the move. And today they still exist and when it suits the strategy of our opponents they will emerge again if they have not already done so. It will be interesting to learn who laid the mines off Cape Agulleas, the finding of which was reported the other day.”

COMBATING THE RAIDER Captain Dalgleish told what was done to combat the menace of enemy raiders and said that as the result of the adoption of the convoy system and the arming of merchantmen, losses were greatly reduced. Nelson, at Trafalgar, smashed the combined naval forces of France and Spain; yet the war continued for another 10 years and the depredations against British merchant shipping by French privateers was intensified. Britain’s losses were enormous and it was not until after Waterloo that peace was assured. Britain at the outbreak of the Great War had the largest and most efficient Merchant Navy the world had ever seen. Whatever might have been in the mind of the nation about the value of the Merchant Navy in the war it had to be realized that for 100 years there had been peace at sea at least, except for pirates, and that the public had come to regard the Merchant Navy as only a commercial and trading institution. Sea power had been represented by the Royal Navy, and the inclusion of the parent of the Royal Navy, the Merchant Navy, formed no part in its explanation. It was not recognized that the Royal Navy was not able to carry on alone. Small ships for patrol work and mine sweeping, fast ships for auxiliary cruisers and others for boarding purposes were required. There were troops to be transported; guns, ammunition, horses and mules, reinforcements and provisions and above all food for the nation had to be carried. “In spite of the vital importance of the Merchant Navy we are in the position today of having 1000 ships fewer than in August 1914,” he continued. “Ships are bigger today; a proportion is speedier and therefore the tonnage is carried in fewer ships, which makes fewer targets for the enemy, and fewer to get through the blockade. “It is just as necessary to the defence of the Empire for the Merchant Navy to be kept up to standard as the Air Force, Navy and Army and, if the Merchant Navy does not move, the troops of the nation will not be fed. Speed in the conduct of war is. essential; we have to combat the air in addition to the submarine, ’ the mine and the torpedo. Speed is necessary to efficient manoeuvring and many a ship’s life has been saved because of her manoeuvring qualities and speed.”