Royal Merchant instal12/23/2023 This presented another danger for merchant mariners, who now had to serve on vessels previously deemed unseaworthy. Unable to replace destroyed shipping vessels quickly enough, Britain pressed every available ship into service, some of which were quite old. Most losses occurred in the North Atlantic, but Axis forces sunk many merchant ships off the coasts of South America and Africa. At the peak of hostilities, between late 1942 and early 1943, U-boats sank on average 33 Allied merchant ships each week. The largest threat came from German U-boats, which patrolled shipping lanes in groups and torpedoed passing merchant vessels. Nonetheless, merchant mariners were prominent on the front lines and suffered heavy casualties. John's, most received little or no safety or emergency training – many did not even know how to properly use a life jacket. Although some mariners attended a gunnery school on the Southside of St. However, if a volunteer decided to stay ashore, he or she had the right to do so. Upon acceptance, recruits usually signed on for a certain number of voyages with the possibility of renewal. Small numbers of women also joined, generally as stewardesses on passenger ships. Most were older men or teenaged boys not eligible to serve in the armed forces. Alongside the hundreds of sailors already serving on commercial vessels, thousands more volunteered after the call went out. Recognizing the importance of a strong merchant navy, the British government sought volunteers from Newfoundland and Labrador soon after hostilities broke out. Any significant interruption of the shipping lanes across the North Atlantic would have made likely a British defeat at German hands. Early Recruitmentīritain relied on imports from North America for its war effort. Many served on Newfoundland ships, such as the passenger ferry Caribou, while others joined the merchant navies of different Allied countries, including Canada, the United States and Panama.
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