Question about Cargo carried during WW2

[Ivan Cloherty]

We traded, we had to, as an Island that would have starved - it did not matter if it was gold,
If we had something that they needed we swopped.

K.

Please don't try to teach me about history of shipping trading or sea going matters, and I will try not to teach you about CnP

[Keith at Tregenna]

All is really not about you, please read things the way they were meant when written.

K.

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[j.sabourn]

Two of a whole list of troublesome general cargo items I found on running around the West Indies were Hay , ( horses fodder) which at that time was shipped in bales of different grades , had tags on of Gold , Silver, and yellow. All looked the same but hell to pay if wrong grade unloaded or over carried. The other was HM mails , these were kept in sacks in the accomodation for all the different islands , to over carry mail in those days was a sackable offence and was the second mates responsibility , luckily I was the mate. JS

[Maureen Wright]

Aah ok thank you - the coal now makes more sense I guess. I suppose naively, I thought that the Merchant Navy were used to transport goods at that time for the war effort ie to keep the services going. Did UK trading still go on as usual? It seems curious while so much was needed here to keep the war effort going, that we were sending valuable goods to South America.
I would like to know more about the work that the M N had to carry on doing during wartime. When were they escorted and how often did that happen?
Incidentally 13 years old seems so so young to be going off to Iceland on a trawler! I have worked in schools during my working life and it’s hard to imagine. Hats off to you.

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Yes I hadn’t thought of mail - that makes sense but oh my goodness hay ... wow I’m finding it hard to accept that an unarmed vessel would be lost while carrying such goods. So so sad.
Thanks for your info.

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Thank you this helps me to begin to understand - I agree an Island may need the help and goods desperately. However Uruguay ?

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Sorry not understanding this post? “All is not about you.please read things the way they were meant when written”

[Maureen Wright]

Oh wow thank you -yes originally from Plaistow - that is so amazing - many thanks 😊

[Maureen Wright]

Yes that does indeed make a lot of sense - thank you. Now that does put things into perspective. I am obviously in awe of the MN ships and the bravery of these seamen and now I see that trading was imperative. I’m so glad I did this to fill in gaps and to help my mum( she is 92 now) understand . For so long she felt no one would talk about Billy and as she has got older it has been on her mind a lot. This has all been so helpful. I’m not great with computers so I hope I’m using this properly and everyone is seeing my replies! I am very grateful.

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I’m finding all this information so fascinating. Thank you for your post. Maureen

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All so interesting to learn about - thank you for all this information. Maureen

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Amen to that.

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Amen to that.

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Is this register a MN log?

[Ivan Cloherty]

Sorry not understanding this post? “All is not about you.please read things the way they were meant when written”

Don't worry about that sentence Maureen, that was meant for me not you. Back to other matters.

Trade had to continue throughtout the war, as much more near as possible, despite all the losses of merchant ships and men circa 2500 vessels/35,000 men. 15,000 merchant navy personnel lost their lives before a single bomb was dropprd on London, there was no phoney war for them.

During WWII the UK was a great industralised country producing all kinds of goods needed worldwide, it eas essential to keep exports going to pay for the goods we couldn't produce. You mention Uriguay for example, which was one of the main beef producers, they need machinery for their canning factories, we need canned meat to feed our people, you may have heard of 'Fray Bentos' a lot of us survived with the help of Fray Bentos corned beef (your grandma will know!).

We also needed oil from Venezuela, which in turn need pumps, pipelines, valves etc to produce oil. The total UK oil production in the UK was 39 barrels (1 barrel = 45 gallons) that total production would not have kept one spitfire flying one day, a lot of people have no idea about that, without the MN tankers not one bomber would have taken off, not plane would have flown, there would have been no Battle of Britain, and we would all be speaking German.

I could go on for pages and pages, but there are plenty of books out there, but alas not many mention the MN without which this island would not have survived,

[Ivan Cloherty]

[QUOTE=Maureen Wright;363688]
Incidentally 13 years old seems so so young to be going off to Iceland on a trawler! I have worked in schools during my working life and it’s hard to imagine. Hats off to you.
QUOTE]

Not unusual in our day Maureen, many youngsters did it, especially those of us living in such fishing ports as Hull, Grimsby, Fleetwood etc, there were in excess of 400 trawlers sailing out of Hull at one time, heading for coasts off Iceland, Bear Isand, Greenland, North Cape, White Sea, away for 3-4 weeks at a time, hard work, dangerous, COLD!, enjoyable, when young you don't see the danger, it's one big adventure. To those of us who'd been bombed out a few times we learnt to live with danger, it didn't become normal, but it didn't phase you out .

We had no i-pads, mobile phones to worry about, so no distractions, the only time we worried about radio reception was if we couldn't get it for S O S reasons. Not that you have time to play, normal hours were 14 -16 even for a 13 year old. 3 - 4 weeks seemed like a long time at 13 years old, but chicken feed to the 10 and 22 month trips I did deep sea. Would I do it again, you betcha!!, not that anyone would have me.

[Keith Tindell]

Maureen, i don't know if it has been mentioned, but Merchant seamen were in fact treated badly in the wars, during the first part of ww2, seamen when torpedoed and end up in the water, their pay was stopped as soon as the ship went down. The wives at home would not know until the money sent home by the company stopped, she would have no idea if her husband was a live or dead. That was stopped during the latter half of the war, kt

[happy daze john in oz]

Ivan, that is the problem when you have a non seafaring person attempting to answer a question about the sea.