Liners of the Canadian Pacific Ocean Services were employed as merchant cruisers and transports. At once the “Alsatian,” “Victorian” and “Virginian” were requisitioned and placed in the 10th Cruiser Squadron which was responsible for a share of the blockade of Germany. The “Calgarian” was sunk on March 1 1918 when proceeding in charge of a convoy of 30 ships.
The total number of vessels lost by the P. & O. Co. and its allied lines was 81, representing 491,600 tons, while 14 vessels of 76,600 tons were lost through marine causes. One of the most heroic actions of war at sea was fought between the “Otaki” of the associated New Zealand Shipping Co. (whose commander, Lt. Archibald Bisset Smith, received a posthumous award of the V.C.) and the disguised heavily armed German cruiser “Moewe.” After the “Otaki” had suffered several casualties and much damage had been done to the hull which was heavily on fire, Lt. Smith ordered the boats to be launched in order that the crew might be rescued. He remained on the ship and went down with her when the vessel sank with colours flying.
The Orient Co.'s liners “Otranto,” “Orama” and “Otway” were early commissioned as armed cruisers and, at the beginning of 1915, the “Orvieto” and “Ophir” were likewise commissioned. Subsequently the “Ophir” was bought by the Government. Other vessels of the line were employed as transports. The “Otranto” was lost by collision on Oct. 6 1918.
Heavy losses were suffered by the various companies controlled by Sir John Ellerman. In all, 103 ocean vessels, with a total cargo capacity of 600,000 to 750,000 tons, were destroyed. These included the liner “City of Athens” mined off Cape Town in Aug. 1917. The “City of Winchester” was the first merchant vessel to be destroyed during the war, being captured by the German cruiser “Königsberg,” while homeward bound from India with a very valuable cargo of produce. Another liner belonging to the Ellerman fleets was mined far from Europe. The “City of Exeter,” a fine passenger ship, struck a mine in the Indian Ocean, about 400 m. from Bombay. Number 1 hold filled at once, and the master gave orders for the passengers and crew to leave the ship. Then the master and chief engineer returned and, at grave risk, made a thorough examination of the ship. They decided that, with the exercise of the greatest care, the crippled vessel could reach Bombay under her own steam. The passengers reembarked and the vessel safely arrived in port. This was only one example of fine seamanship, of which there were many hundreds of magnificent cases during the war. When the enemy's submarine campaign became intensified not a voyage through infested waters could have been completed without the exercise of courage of the highest order, and repeatedly the seamanship and endurance of the officers and crews were put to the severest test. There were lurking dangers for the ancient little collier which had to feel her way up and down the North Sea, her one protection being a little gun—slight armament against a powerfully armed submarine; for the great liners which proceeded without escort and relied on their speed, their own guns, their “dazzle painting,” and their zig-zag courses to baffle the efforts of the enemy to sink them with, perhaps, several thousand troops on board; and for the slower cargo vessels which, in convoy formation, when thick weather obscured the other ships, ran the very serious risk of collision.
Vessels of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. had the distinction of being the first among British liners to be fitted before the the war for carrying a gun for defensive purposes. This was in accordance with the policy initiated, before the war, by Mr. Winston Churchill when First Lord of the Admiralty. Royal Mail vessels were largely employed as armed cruisers, transports and hospital ships. As armed cruisers there were commissioned the “Andes,” “Arlanza,” “Almanzora,” “Avon,” (“Avoca”), “Ebro” and “Alcantara.” The last named, only lightly armed, fought the disguised German raider “Greif” for 20 minutes in the North Sea, and sank with colours flying just before her enemy went to the bottom. The “Asturias” was torpedoed while bearing all the marks of a hospital ship. Other ships of the line which bore the Red Cross were the “Araguaya,” “Drina,” “Essequibo,” “Tagus,” “Agadir,” “Berbice” and “Balantia” (renamed “St. Margaret of Scotland”). Many vessels of the fleets were sunk, including the large liners “Amazon,” “Drina,” and “Merionethshire.”
No fewer than six of the Union-Castle liners were torpedoed or mined while serving as hospital ships, namely, the “Galeka,” “Braemar Castle,” “Dover Castle,” “Glenart Castle” (twice), “Gloucester Castle,” and “Llandovery Castle.” While based on Southampton the hospital ships of the company carried 331,000 British wounded officers and men to port and also landed 8,200 enemy wounded. The liners “Armadale Castle,” “Edinburgh Castle,” “Kinfauns Castle,” and “Kildonan Castle” were commissioned as armed merchant cruisers. The company's vessels also carried very large numbers of troops. It was not surprising that, after the Armistice, many months elapsed before a sufficient number of vessels could be again placed in the ordinary S. African passenger service to provide weekly sailings.
Recognition of the services of British shipping during the war was made by the King and his ministers in various speeches. Speaking at the Guildhall on July 29 1919, the King declared that the splendid services of the officers and men of the British mercantile marine had been vital to the successful issue of the war. From day to day these men had been facing death no less than the soldiers in the fighting line, and, even when the submarine menace was at its height, no single British crew ever refused to sail. He urged the re-creation of the merchant navy and the development of the ports as essential if the United Kingdom was to regain its old supremacy.
Men of the mercantile marine marched in the procession of the Allied and Associated Forces through the streets of London on July 19, 1919. There was also a special pageant of the Sea Services on Aug. Bank Holiday 1919. This took the form of a procession of lifeboats, bearing the House flags of all the shipping companies, from the Pool of London to Chelsea. The procession was headed by a launch flying the flag of the Port of London Authority, followed by a steam vessel of Trinity House, with the Duke of Connaught, as Master, on board. Then came a picket boat with a naval officer in charge as escort to the Royal barge. In this were the King and Queen, Queen Alexandra, the Prince of Wales, Prince Albert (afterwards Duke of York) and other members of the Royal Family. Following this was a specially prepared barge bearing the Lords of the Admiralty and then the Lord Mayor, as admiral of the Port of London, in the barge of the commander-in-chief at the Nore. These were followed by launches of the Ministry of Shipping, the Customs and Excise, Lloyd's and the Thames Conservancy. A dozen twelve-oared naval cutters, four picket boats and an armed motor-launch of the navy, models of naval guns, motor and steam lifeboats, a motor-launch carrying Trinity House pilots, steam-boats of the Mercantile Marine Association and boats from the training ships, fishermen's motor drifters, and vessels representing the Missions to Seamen. The rear was brought up by 70 lifeboats towed by tugs bearing the flags of the various shipping ownerships. Bands were placed along the line of route and famous old sea songs were sung. Such a commemoration was unprecedented, but then the services of the mercantile marine during the war were likewise unique.
The Commonwealth Government Line.—In the summer of 1916 a development occurred of great importance to shipping. For some time Australia had been seriously disturbed about the difficulties encountered in arranging for her exportable surplus of wheat, a matter of vital importance to the Commonwealth. With the ever-diminishing supply of tonnage, British vessels had naturally been directed more and more into the N. Atlantic, since it was obviously much quicker to bring wheat to the United Kingdom—less than 3,000 m. across the ocean—than more than 12,000 miles. Mr. W. M. Hughes, the Prime Minister of Australia, arrived in the United Kingdom in March 1916, but he got little satisfaction from the Imperial authorities on the shipping question. He sailed for home in June and, when he was on the water, the announcement was made that he had bought, on account of the Commonwealth Government, 15 second-hand
