German submarines enjoy great success off the east coast of the United States In preparation for hostilities, the German submarine fleet deploys into the North Sea, sinking its first ship a few hours after the outbreak of war with BritainĬapture of the French Atlantic ports gives Germany easy access to the North and South Atlanticįirst ‘happy time’ of the U-boat arm as convoys sail with weak escorting forces Timeline: Germany and the Allies in the Atlantic On the continued willingness of this multinational group to put to sea would depend the survival of Britain in the dark days of 1941 and beyond. Some 25 per cent hailed from India and China, while a further five per cent came from the Caribbean, Middle East and Africa. In fact, Merchant Navy vessels were staffed by seamen from across the British empire and the occupied nations of Europe such as Norway, Greece and Denmark. Not all of them, however, were British nationals. By the end of the war in 1945 over 30,000 British merchant seamen had lost their lives. The men of the British Merchant Navy were similarly diverse. The galley was manned by three cooks, one of whom was always a Christian to cook pork products for the Europeans.Īt the bottom of the deck, engine room and catering departments were three ‘topass’, Hindus of low caste employed to do jobs or handle materials which were taboo for Muslims. Under the chief were three stewards, two of whom served meals in the saloon and one in the engineers’ messroom. The catering department, run by the chief steward, was primarily concerned with caring for the European officers. Beneath the engine room serang and tindal there was a ‘donkeyman’ to look after auxiliary machinery and ‘greasers’ to service the main engines. In the engine room a similar hierarchy existed. They had to clean decks, rig cargo-handling gear and act as lookouts. Below them in the hierarchy came the ‘calassies’ (able and ordinary seamen). They steered the ship, ran messages, and acted as gangway watchmen in port. Four other men were rated as ‘seacunnies’. The deck department was led by the ‘serang’ (or bosun), the ‘tindal’ (his deputy), and the ‘cassab’ (storekeeper). They were organised in three departments: deck, engine room and catering. Accommodation for Europeans was in two sets of cabins amidships, while lascars lived in a cramped fo'c'sle below deck in the bows.Īsian members of the crew, recruited in Bengal, were almost all Muslims. In addition, the ship carried 8 to 10 gunners drawn from the Royal Artillery and Royal Navy. The senior personnel of the ship were European (master, officers and engineers, including apprentice deck officers who could be as young as 16). She had a crew of 57 (30 per cent Europeans and 70 per cent lascars - sailors from the Indian subcontinent). Olivebank was the British empire in microcosm. While she survived the war, eight of her sister ships were sadly not so fortunate. In her five holds Olivebank could carry everything from agricultural produce to weapons of war. MV Olivebank was one of 18 identical 5,000-gross-registered-ton cargo ships built for Andrew Weir and Company in the mid-1920s.
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