Post by Administrator on Sept 21, 2013 21:56:39 GMT
SURVIVING SINKING:
Having survived the loss of their ship, many merchant seamen did return to sea as soon as they could in the way propaganda depicted. However this was often out of economic necessity or because it was the only way of life some individuals knew as much as anything else. Until 1941 (and in practice well after that) the pay of merchant seamen was stopped from the point their ship was sunk. This meant that although they had survived death they subsequently had no immediate means of support for themselves or their families. The behaviour of some merchant seamen after their rescue shocked members of the Royal Navy who characterized it as ill disciplined and ungrateful, also noting the assumption that merchant officers were regarded as having no more authority over their men once their ship had gone down. However given that shipping companies disowned them and their families once a vessel had been sunk, such attitudes were predictable. In some cases merchant seamen even received tax demands for the period they went unpaid between losing one ship and joining a new crew. Historian Richard Woodman comments that it is unsurprising that some seamen reversed the MN (for Merchant Navy) of their official badges so that the capitals read NW instead – Not Wanted. Some survivors were traumatised by their experience of sinking and did not go back to sea.
It was very unusual for U-boats to pick up survivors in any numbers and this was used to stress the brutality of U-boat crews in propaganda. However there were instances of rescue and the provision of navigational aid and food by enemy submarines on occasion.
Having survived the loss of their ship, many merchant seamen did return to sea as soon as they could in the way propaganda depicted. However this was often out of economic necessity or because it was the only way of life some individuals knew as much as anything else. Until 1941 (and in practice well after that) the pay of merchant seamen was stopped from the point their ship was sunk. This meant that although they had survived death they subsequently had no immediate means of support for themselves or their families. The behaviour of some merchant seamen after their rescue shocked members of the Royal Navy who characterized it as ill disciplined and ungrateful, also noting the assumption that merchant officers were regarded as having no more authority over their men once their ship had gone down. However given that shipping companies disowned them and their families once a vessel had been sunk, such attitudes were predictable. In some cases merchant seamen even received tax demands for the period they went unpaid between losing one ship and joining a new crew. Historian Richard Woodman comments that it is unsurprising that some seamen reversed the MN (for Merchant Navy) of their official badges so that the capitals read NW instead – Not Wanted. Some survivors were traumatised by their experience of sinking and did not go back to sea.
It was very unusual for U-boats to pick up survivors in any numbers and this was used to stress the brutality of U-boat crews in propaganda. However there were instances of rescue and the provision of navigational aid and food by enemy submarines on occasion.