From the mid-18th century, masters or owners of most British-registered merchant ships were required to keep a record of their crew before the ship left port. the-raf-in-camera-1939-1945 1/11 Downloaded from uniport.edu.ng on March 2, 2023 by guest . This number made up around one third of the entire global merchant fleet at the time, with many of the seamen coming from all over the Empire, including India, Hong Kong and West Africa. Merchant ship deployment in the Second World War: Motor vessels Centaur - Merchant Navy during the Second World War -. Although the design of this website looks rather old-fashioned, it's still updated and is a good resource for Welsh Merchant Navy records. The family believed that the torpedoed ship was the Tacoma Star of the Blue Star Line but I believe that ship was lost with all hands and Ronnie's name does not appear on the casualty list. The passage to Durban took longer than anticipated because the route diverted to sail closer to the African coast and the convoy speed dropped to 6.1/2 knots to enable the RN escorts to rendezvous with a tanker for refuelling at Point Noire. 09:00 to 17:00. Image: Mary Evans/Pharcide"}},{"__typename":"PrismicArticlePage1939BodySliceText","type":"slice-text","primary":{"__typename":"PrismicArticlePage1939BodySliceTextPrimary","content":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"Particular emphasis was put on implementing the convoy system, by which warships would customarily escort groups of merchant ships to deter attacks from German U-boats. Merchant seamen who were discharged from the navy between 1940 and 1972 had their records filed in what became known as 'seamen's pouches'. It lists nearly 24,000 Welsh merchant masters, mates and engineers who were active between 1800 and 1945. War Casualties and the Merchant Navy | NSW Environment, Energy and Science