Canadian Merchant Navy

English: , "Voyage after voyage, men who had seen a dozen ships go down about them, men who had been torpedoed once, twice, three times, sailed and sailed again." , , Joseph Schull, Merchant Seaman, During the Second World War, coal, steel, and other important war materials shipped from Sydney were essential ingredients for the Allied war effort in Europe. Early in the war, Sydney became the assembly port for convoys, often described as the lifeline to Europe. The convoys from Sydney most often consisted of merchant ships that were never intended for the open sea. Often old and dilapidated, many considered as "tramps", these ships were hastily pressed into service. With the older ships, the convoys that sailed from Sydney tended to be slower than other convoys. Because of this, the prefix SC (for Slow Convoy) was used to identify each convoy from Sydney., Because of the demand for manpower for the armed forces, and industry, it was not uncommon to see men in their forties and fifties serving together on merchant ships with teenaged boys, some as young as fourteen. A small number of women also joined the merchant navy and served throughout the war., During the Battle of the Atlantic (1939-1945) the danger of a merchant ship being torpedoed or bombed remained constant. Often without warning there was an explosion, followed by the cries of merchant sailors struggling to survive in the cold, oil-slicked and often burning waters of the North Atlantic. Ships loaded with fuel or ammunition were particularly dangerous. If torpedoed, there was the flash, then nothing. It was said there were no rats on a tanker, and that on every ship but a tanker, sailors wore a life preserver when they slept. On a tanker there was no point., For those who survived, they faced hours, even days, on an open raft or in a small boat. Those left in the water did not survive long. A convoy could not stop to rescue survivors. For the fortunate few that were rescued, there were blankets, dry clothes, coffee, and rum. For thousands of others, there was only the eternal sea., A total of 177 convoys sailed from Sydney during the Battle of the Atlantic, often averaging more than 14 ships per convoy. In one example alone, in October 1940, convoy SC-7 from Sydney lost 20 ships, totaling nearly 80,000 GRT (Gross Register Tonnage). During the Second World War, 48 Sydney convoys were successfully attacked by German U-Boats, resulting in the sinking of 226 ships for a total loss of 995,795 GRT., While larger ports such as New York and Halifax were well-known assembly points for convoys, the numbers demonstrate that Sydney played an equally significant and important role in securing victory in Europe., [photo captions] , Fore view of a “Board and Barrel” raft on SS Narissa., [background images] , . A group of merchant sailors after being rescued. , . Not all North Atlantic crossings were rough ones. , . ”We are as near to heaven as by sea as by land…” , A merchant ship wallows between waves in heavy seas. Storms were a constant threat to North American convoys.,