THE MERCANTILE MARINE.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 656, 5 August 1921, Page 7

THE MERCANTILE MARINE.

COMMENDATION FROM A QUALI-

FIED CRITIC.

During the war period the “Times"' was continually urging the rights ol the men of the mercantile marine to a fuller recognition by the general public of their superb services under the most trying conditions. Their claims were always, to a certain extent, obscured by the more showy performances of (the Navy, and people were inclined to forget that the men under the red ensign ran as many risks as the men under the white one, and in much more trying circumstances, for it requires more courage to stand and be shot at than to take part in a ding-dong fight. That is what Admiral Sims, who was in command of (the American Navy during the war, had to say about them during his recent visit to England.

If any of our people thought they could not handle the convoys they were mistaken. We found that they were immensely expert in doing it. The merchant seamen had no “nerves’’ at all. No amount of torpedoing was able (to chase them away from the sea. I have known men wßho were torpedoed six times, and who still went back. If it had not been for the conduct of the merchant seamen all the navies of the Allies would not have availed at all, because we could not have kept the lines of communication open and continued the supply of food to Europe. Without them the war would have beet) lost; that is all. The result of the war has been to increase the respect of everybody for the qualities of the mercantile marine and to put them and the naval officers into thorough accord in a way that has never before existed. They, perhaps, regarded the Navy men as wearers of gold braid and little else, and the Navy men hardly thought that they would face :m enemy boldly at sea. Now they both know differently, ’and they respect each other all the better.”

It is gratifying to be able to record these words from an outsider whose position enabled him to see things from the inside. But it is not merely their courage we have to be proud of, but their humanity. They kept up the gallant traditions of the sea which our barbarous enemies so flagrantly outraged. During the war there were numerous occasions on which the Germans fired on our men struggling in the water, and equally numerous ones in which our men risked their lives to save these same despicable enemies in a similar plight.. We ought never to forget that our sailor men worked and died for the Empire in every sea—- “ Where the billow mournful rolls, And the mermaids’ song condoles, Singingv Glory to the Souls Of the brave.”