Encyclopedia
Merchant Navy, Second World War
The term Merchant Navy refers to a nation’s commercial shipping and crews. During the Second World War Merchant Navy ships carrying valuable cargoes were at just as much risk as Royal Australian Navy (RAN) warships. Merchant ships were attacked not only in distant waters but also within sight of the Australian coastline while traversing much frequented trade routes.
Following a number of gunnery and torpedo attacks on merchant ships
along the New South Wales coast, the Naval Board instituted a system
of coastal convoys as a temporary protective measure. Ships that sailed
independently, rather than in convoys, ran a greater risk of being torpedoed.
Hospital ships were crewed by merchant seamen.
HMAS Manoora, an armed merchant cruiser, fitted with seven
6 inch guns. Formerly an Australian coastal passenger liner owned by
the Adelaide Steamship Company, Manoora was requisitioned on
the 14 October 1939 by the Naval Board
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Contrary to popular belief, merchant seaman were not well-paid, did not have comfortable working hours, and their living conditions were often very poor. Industrial action did occur but it did not benefit seamen as much as has been said and was almost always entered into on the basis of pay, extreme danger, or working and living conditions. Figures published by the Seaman’s Union of Australia (SUA) in 1972 indicate that 386 members of the union lost their lives during the Second World War. Given the union’s claim of a total membership of 4,500 at the beginning of the war, the overall fatality rate among seamen members of the SUA during the Second World War was 8.5 per cent, a rate higher than that sustained by Australia’s fighting services.
Source
Don Fraser, “’Men of a service’: Australian merchant seamen”, Wartime: official magazine of the Australian War Memorial 5 (1999): 53–57
More About:
- Commemorative Roll
Lists members of the Merchant Navy who have died during or as a result of wars. The Roll includes those who served with the Australian Merchant Navy and the merchant seamen of other nations. - Australia’s
Merchant Navy in the Second World War
A history of the role of Australia's Merchant Navy from 1939 to 1946, with particular reference to the War in the Asia/Pacific area, created by ex-crewmen who served on merchant ships owned by the Burns Philip Shipping Company. - Centaur hospital ship
The Centaur was sunk without warning by a torpedo from a Japanese submarine on 14 May 1943. 26 of the ship's crew were in merchant service.