Maritime workers commemorate Merchant Navy Day

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Joe Fleet­wood says the Mer­chant Navy Day com­mem­o­rates mer­chant sea­men and their con­tri­bu­tion espe­cial­ly dur­ing times of war.

He says that mer­chant sea­men con­tin­ue to serve in a poten­tial­ly dan­ger­ous indus­try that a mar­itime trad­ing nation like New Zealand depends on.

In 2010 the New Zealand Gov­ern­ment announced that they would join Britain and oth­er Com­mon­wealth coun­tries to com­mem­o­rate those who served in the Mer­chant Navy in the Sec­ond World War.

The date cho­sen was 3 Sep­tem­ber as this observes the sink­ing of the first British mer­chant ship in 1939, just hours after the war was declared.

Dur­ing the Sec­ond World War, 4,700 Allied mer­chant ves­sels were sunk and 30,000 mer­chant sea­men on the Allied side lost their lives.