THE MERCHANT NAVY

Korero (AEWS), Volume 3, Issue 5, 9 April 1945, Page 26

THE MERCHANT NAVY

& I

SYDNEY D WATERS

A Talk Broadcast from Main New Zealand Stations

During the long period of peace after the conclusion of the Napoleonic War in 1815 the British Merchant Navy came to be generally. regarded as a trading organization that and nothing more. It was largely forgotten by the British people that the Merchant Navy actually had a war history dating back to a period anterior to the founding of the Royal Navythat it was, in fact, the parent of the Royal Navy. Few recalled the great part that merchant seamen had borne in former wars or remembered that in earlier periods of British history the merchant sailor had stood between his country and the would-be invader when little or no progress had been made in the organization of a fighting Navy as a State institution. The Merchant Navy was thought to be an organization without traditions and with little remaining romance, owing to the advent of steam, which had replaced sail-power. That was a narrow and mistaken view, as events were to show.

During the Great War of 1914-18, British merchant seamen quickly came to be recognized as no ordinary men engaged merely in facilitating the barter and exchange of a commercial community, but as belonging to the great brotherhood of fighting men, instinct with sturdy patriotism and proud of the traditions of the Merchant Navy dating back over centuries to the early years of British history. Its officers and men quickly set up a record of daring, resource, and fine seamanship so conspicuous that it was necessary to amend the statutes and make new regulations to enable suitable recognition of their gallantry to be given them. The mer-

chant seaman, unassuming and modest, took his stand, with the full recognition of an aroused and grateful public opinion, beside the men of the purely fighting services. It was the master of a New Zealand trading ship, the “ Otaki,” who was awarded posthumously the Victoria Cross for his valorous and nearly successful action with a single gun against a heavily armed German raider. His Majesty King George V, himself a sailor, in a message of appreciation of the services of the British merchant seaman in 1915, referred to “ his Merchant Navy.” After the war he appointed the Prince of Wales Master of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets. The then Prime Minister, Mr. Lloyd George, accurately described the Merchant Navy as “ the jugular vein of the nation.” Nearly 15,000 British Merchant Seamen gave their lives in the war of 1914-18 ; nearly 2,500 British merchant ships, totalling 7,750,000 tons, were lost through enemy action ; nearly 2,000 ships, totalling 8,000,000 tons, were damaged or molested by the enemy. There was a black period in 1917 when it looked as if the enemy’s ruthless submarine warfare against the Merchant Navy would paralyse Britain’s war effort. The adoption of sailings in convoy saved the situation. The British merchant seamen reverted to the traditional methods of his forbears and thus assisted the Royal Navy to provide security for “ such as pass on the seas upon their lawful occasions.”

The story of the Merchant Navy during the twenty-one years between 1918 and 1939 is not a happy one, but if many

British people tended to forget that the Merchant Navy was the jugular vein of •our nation, not so the Germans. Mindful of the near thing in 1917, the Nazis’ war plans embodied an immediate allout onslaught against British and Allied merchant ships and seamen. Commerce raiders and U-boats were already at sea when Great Britain and France declared war against Germany on September 3, 1939. Barely eight hours later U-boats claimed their first victim—the British liner “ Athenia ” —which was torpedoed without warning and sunk off the coast of Ireland with a loss of 127 lives. During the first four weeks U-boats sank thirty-four ships totalling 138,000 tons, the “ Admiral Graf Spee ” of inglorious memory sank another off the coast of Brazil, and enemy mines accounted for three more in British waters.

That was the beginning of Nazi Germany’s total war at sea by means of which Hitler hoped to sever the jugular vein of the nation. U-boats, surface raiders, long-range bombers, contact mines, magnetic mines, acoustic mines, all were employed in ever-increasing numbers against the merchant ships of Great Britain, her Allies, and the few neutrals—the Merchant Navies which President Roosevelt, in another apt metaphor, described as the “ life-line of democracy.” Over and over again Mr. Churchill reminded us that we must regard the struggle at sea as the foundation of all efforts of the United Nations, and that if we lost that, all else would be denied to us. And it was Mr. Churchill who definitely assessed the depredations of the U-boats as a far graver menace to the British war effort than the great German air blitz on London and other British cities.

But nothing daunted the merchant seaman. None failed to sign on and take the ships to sea for fear of any devilish weapon the enemy would use against them. Again and again to the stormy North Atlantic, again and again to the wild ice-strewn routes of the North Russia convoys, again and again through “ bomb alley ” on the way to Malta, again and again on any voyage called for, he went unflinching. If there was any fear in his heart, it was not on his

own account, but dread of what Nazi bombers might do to his people at home. The veteran master of one New Zealand liner who was counting his last voyage before retirement under the age limit arrived out here to be .greeted with a cable message telling him that his wife had been killed when their home was wrecked by a Nazi bomb. An engineer in another ship arrived in Wellington to learn that his wife and two children, his mother and father and two sisters had been killed during a German air raid.

From the beginning of this war to the end of 1943 the proportion of seamen hailing from the British Isles alone who have been lost at sea on their vital duty has been about one-fifth of the average number engaged in this service. The casualties suffered by the Merchant Navy in this war are more than double the number of the war of 1914-18. Up to August 31 of this year 29,629 British merchant seamen had lost their lives at sea through enemy action and 4,173 had been taken as prisoners. Thousands more sustained injuries of many kinds, and hundreds suffered from exposure and hunger and thirst while adrift in boats or on rafts. There is no available record of casualties suffered by the brave American, Norwegian, Danish, . Polish, French, and Belgian merchant seamen who threw in their lot with us, but they number in thousands.

The number of British merchant ships lost from all causes to the end of 1943 totalled 2,921, Allied merchant vessels 1,937, and neutral ships some 900,

representing a total of 22,161,000 gross tons, which is nearly double the tonnage lost in 1914-18.

Never before in the history of human conflict has sea power played so great a part as in the present world struggle, and in global war merchant shipping is the ultimate key to all strategy. Indeed, sea power has only now truly come into its own. Yet the decisive importance of controlling the great medium of mass transportation in global warfare and the

port. One such tanker, reconstructed, was recently in Wellington.

Many of the big ships trading to New Zealand can tell brave stories. There is the “ Sussex,” which four years ago was attacked by a German aircraft 650 miles west of Ireland. One bomb exploded in the funnel wrecking the whole of the superstructure, including the navigating bridge and chart-room, and smashing the compasses. A second bomb exploded in a forward hold and started a bad fire in

projection of the traditional advantages of sea power on to a world-wide scale do not yet suffice to explain the extraordinary increase in the significance of sea power in the present conflict. Sea power has been promoted to a function of direct, decisive intervention in the most crucial strategic issues themselves.

The Merchant Navy, supplier-in-chief to the Royal Navy, the Air Force, and the Army, has been the foundation on which the United Nations have been enabled to plan and build for ultimate victory. The enemy realized that from the beginning—hence his all-out efforts against our merchant ships and seamen.

Those of you who saw that great film, “ San Demetrio,” will have learned why the enemy’s effort to defeat the Merchant Navy has failed. The boat’s crew who reboarded their burning petrol-laden tanker and navigated her to port without chart or compass were typical British merchant seamen.

More than once when a tanker has been torpedoed by a U-boat and broken in two, the fore-part sinking, the ship’s people have navigated the after-half into

the cargo close to a compartment holding 40 tons of cordite. Steering by a boat compass, the ship arrived in harbour.

Said the master in his report : “ I should particularly like to recommend F. Trundley, assistant steward, aged twenty-three, whose devotion to duty in fighting the fire which burned part of the cordite was outstanding. I should also like to mention Ordinary Seaman Croxford, a lad of eighteen, wlio, though badly burned and wounded by machinegun bullets, refused to leave his station at the gun. The whole crew behaved splendidly, and their only regret was at not being able to bring down the enemy.” Trundley was awarded the George Medal and Croxford the British Empire Medal, and both were awarded Lloyd’s War Medal for bravery at sea.

Then, there was the case of the “ Hororata,” homeward-bound with a large cargo of meat and dairy-produce. She was torpedoed 200 miles from Flores, in the Azores, the explosion blowing a great hole 45 ft. by 32 ft. in her side. The ship, which was in imminent danger of capsizing, reached Flores, but no

repairs were possible there, so she went on to Horta. There the decision was made to put a timber patch over the huge hole. Trees were felled and sawn into lengths, odd lengths of railway iron being used as stiffeners. The ship’s engineers cut bolts to secure the timber and iron in place. After three months the patch was completed and more than 300 tons of concrete poured into boxing to ensure strength and watertightness. The “ Hororata ” then proceeded and completed her voyage, saved by the unbeatable courage and resourcefulness of her people.

Five aircraft attacks were made on the convoy in which the well-known motor-ship, “ Port Fairy,” was sailing. A bomb struck her stern and set her on fire. The crew manned the hoses and fought the flames, and a naval escort ship went alongside and pumped water into the vessel. As the fire was still spreading after five hours and encircling the ammunition magazine on the lower deck, the chief officer, Mr. A. J. Knell, D.S.C., was lowered over the side. He climbed through the hole made by the explosion and, surrounded by flames and smoke and standing on the hot deck, played a hose on the fire. He was relieved by five other members of the crew in succession, including the electrician and chief steward, and eventually they put the fire out. Captain J. G. Lewis, master of the “ Port Fairy,” was then faced with the task of getting his ship to port, 500 miles away. His steeringgear was completely wrecked, but steering by the engines he kept up an average speed of 141 knots, so close was the

co-operation between the engineers below and the officers on the bridge.

-There are many stories I could tell of the sufferings and unbeatable courage of merchant seamen adrift on rafts or in boats after their ships had sunk. The most amazing of them all is that of Poon Lim, the Chinese second steward of the “ Ben Lomond,” which was torpedoed and sunk six days’ steam from her destination, a South American port. It was on November 23 when the ship was sunk, and Poon Lim found himself the sole survivor, on a raft. He found water and food stored which lasted him for 50 days. Then he managed to dig a nail out of a. plank with his teeth, and with the same tools he bent it to form a fish-hook. He unravelled the lifeline round the raft and made a fishing-line, baited the hook with some biscuit, and caught a fish. This he used as bait and caught others. Rainwater had to suffice for drink, and he was only five days without water. He was stark naked all the time and his skin burned to a deep black-brown. He drifted for 130 days and was picked up by Brazilian fishermen on April 2. Almost at once after his rescue he expressed his keen desire to return to' duty.

There are many instances of seamen picked up after days adrift in boats only to have the rescuing ship torpedoed and sunk under them a few days later. There are thousands of merchant seamen who have been bombed and strafed by aircraft and torpedoed two, three, four, and five times in ship after ship. But they still go back to sea and carry on. They are a gallant and unbeatable brotherhood.

The Sunlight League of New Zealand is conducting some literary competitions for servicemen and women in New Zealand and the Pacific. Soldiers, sailors, and airmen and WAACS, WAAFS, and WRENS are invited to write 500 words as “ essay, verse, parable, newspaper article, or skit” on (1) “What the World Needs,” or (2) “ What New Zealand Needs.” If an entry takes the form of a written radio talk or dialogue, the limit on length is 1,500 words. Prizes offered are £6, £5, £4, £3, £2, and £l. Date of closing is August 31, 1945. Fuller details may be obtained from Miss Cora Wilding, Hon. Secretary, Sunlight League of New Zealand, 113 St. Martin’s Road, Christchurch S.E. 2.