Читать книгу A Merchant Fleet at War онлайн

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Finally a word should be said, perhaps, of another difficulty which confronts any one who endeavours to tell the story of what merchant sailors did during the Great War. These men dislike publicity and their modesty disarms the inquisitor. Like their comrades of the Royal Navy, they are content if they can feel that they have done their duty. They would leave it at that. But were silence to be maintained, later generations would be robbed, for the progress of humanity depends, in no small measure, on the manner in which the memory of great deeds is preserved, and handed down from age to age. No man can live unto himself.

The story of the contribution which British seamen have made to the happiness and well being of the world can never be half told, and these pages form merely a footnote to one of the most glorious epics in human annals. They go forth in the hope that they may help to perpetuate those sterling virtues which find increasing expression in the British race throughout the world. James Anthony Froude once declared that all that this country has achieved in the course of three centuries has been due to her predominance as an ocean power. “Take away her merchant fleets; take away the navy that guards them; her empire will come to an end; her colonies will fall off like leaves from a withered tree; and Britain will become once more an insignificant island in the North sea.” So I hope this book may be regarded not merely as a footnote to history, but may remind all and sundry of the priceless heritage which our seamen of all classes and degrees have left in our keeping.