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A Merchant Fleet at War

Chapter 1: A MERCHANT FLEET AT WAR
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About This Book

A wartime account of the merchant fleet’s role during the Great War, describing mobilisation, the conversion of passenger liners into armed and hospital ships, and the steady movement of troops and materiel under escort. The narrative recounts encounters with enemy submarines, notable sinkings and survival episodes, and the everyday practices adopted at sea—camouflage, armament, convoy procedures and boat drills—alongside shore-based contributions such as factory and aeroplane work. Drawn from officers’, captains’, and crews’ recollections and contemporary photographs, the account emphasizes practical challenges, seamanship, and sacrifice as civilian vessels and their personnel sustained global logistics and evacuated or treated the wounded amid modern naval warfare.

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Title: A Merchant Fleet at War

Author: Archibald Hurd

Release date: July 4, 2021 [eBook #65761]
Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

Language: English

Credits: deaurider, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

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Transcriber’s Note

Larger versions of most illustrations may be seen by right-clicking them and selecting an option to view them separately, or by double-tapping and/or stretching them.

MAP SHEWING INCIDENTS, DETAILS OF WHICH ARE GIVEN IN THE TEXT.

A MERCHANT
FLEET AT WAR

“Aquitania” leading the Transports

A MERCHANT
FLEET AT WAR

By
ARCHIBALD HURD

Author of “The British Fleet in the
Great War,” “Command of the Sea,”
“Sea-Power,” etc. etc.

CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD
London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne
1920

All rights reserved


Over the warring waters, beneath the wandering skies,
The heart of Britain roameth, the Chivalry of the sea,
Where Spring never bringeth a flower, nor bird singeth in a tree,
Far, afar, O beloved, beyond the sight of our eyes,
Over the warring waters, beneath the stormy skies.
Robert Bridges.