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Merchant Navy Day commemorated

On 3 September we commemorate the sacrifice of merchant seafarers, the "fourth service", in the two World Wars of the twentieth century.

Dur­ing the Sec­ond World War, thou­sands of New Zealand sea­far­ers vol­un­teered to serve in the Mer­chant Navy

They sailed ship­ments of fuel, food and oth­er essen­tial sup­plies across the world, and deliv­ered troops and mil­i­tary equip­ment where they were need­ed.

The work was impor­tant and extreme­ly dan­ger­ous. 4,700 Allied mer­chant ships were sunk dur­ing the con­flict, and 30,000 Allied mer­chant sea­men lost their lives.

This includ­ed New Zealand ships like the Turak­i­na and the Lim­er­ick, and at least 140 Kiwi mer­chant sea­far­ers were killed with a sim­i­lar num­ber tak­en pris­on­er.

The Mer­chant Navy faced greater dan­ger than any oth­er group of New Zealand civil­ians. Their sac­ri­fice and hero­ism will be remem­bered for­ev­er.

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