CONTENTS
| PAGE | ||
| Foreword | [xvii] | |
| CHAPTER | ||
| I. | Mobilisation | [1] |
| II. | Combatant Cunarders | [12] |
| III. | Carrying on | [38] |
| IV. | The Ordeal of the “Lusitania” | [58] |
| V. | The Toll of the Submarines | [87] |
| VI. | Shore Work for the Services | [119] |
ILLUSTRATIONS
| In Colour | |
| “Aquitania” leading the transports | [Frontispiece] |
| To face page | |
| “Aquitania” escorted by destroyers | [4] |
| “Mauretania” escorted by destroyers | [12] |
| Torpedoing of the “Ivernia” | [28] |
| “Carmania” sinking “Cap Trafalgar” | [36] |
| Torpedoing of the “Ausonia” | [44] |
| Torpedoing of the “Lusitania” | [52] |
| “Phrygia” sinking a submarine | [60] |
| Torpedoing of the “Thracia” | [68] |
| “Valeria” sinking a submarine | [84] |
| Torpedoing of the “Volodia” | [92] |
| “Aquitania” as hospital ship | [108] |
| “Campania” as seaplane ship | [124] |
| In Monochrome | |
| To face page | |
| “Aquitania” at Southampton with Canadian troops | [2] |
| Embarkation | [6] |
| Transport in Southampton Water | [6] |
| Canadian troops on “Caronia” being addressed by their commander | [8] |
| The “Campania” sinking in the Firth of Forth | [10] |
| The “Carmania” starboard forward guns | [14] |
| Rope protection on “Carmania” against shell splinters | [14] |
| Life on a transport (i): Kit inspection | [16] |
| Life on a transport (ii): Rifle drill | [16] |
| The “Carmania” ready for action | [18] |
| South African infantry on board the “Laconia” | [22] |
| The “Caronia” leaving Durban | [24] |
| H.M.S. “Mersey” alongside the “Laconia” off the Rufigi River | [26] |
| The “Carmania” approaching Trinidad | [30] |
| One of the “Carmania’s” guns | [30] |
| “Abandon Ship” drill at sea | [32] |
| After the fight | [32] |
| Chart-house and bridge of the “Carmania” after the fight | [34] |
| The “Laconia” at Durban | [38] |
| Final of the S.A.I. heavyweight championship on the “Laconia” | [38] |
| The Nelson Plate presented to the “Carmania” | [40] |
| Crew leaving the “Franconia” after she was torpedoed | [42] |
| Scene on board after the torpedoing of the “Ivernia” (i) | [46] |
| Scene on board after the torpedoing of the “Ivernia” (ii) | [48] |
| The torpedoing of the “Ivernia”: Survivors afloat on raft | [50] |
| The torpedoing of the “Ivernia”: Survivors being taken in one of the boats | [54] |
| The “Lusitania” | [56] |
| The “Mauretania” as a hospital ship off Naples Harbour | [58] |
| The “Alaunia” as an emergency hospital ship | [62] |
| The “Lusitania” passing the Old Head of Kinsale | [64] |
| The “white wake” that stretched to the beaches of Gallipoli | [66] |
| Officers, nurses and R.A.M.C. orderlies of H.M.H.S. “Aquitania” | [70] |
| “Homeward Bound.” | [70] |
| The sun-cure | [72] |
| The “Franconia” passing through the Suez Canal | [72] |
| American troops never forgot the “Lusitania” | [74] |
| In the Spring of 1918 the “Mauretania” brought 33,000 American soldiers to Europe | [78] |
| The “Aquitania’s” stage | [80] |
| The “Saxonia,” camouflaged, leaving New York with American troops for Europe | [80] |
| Welcoming the first contingent of returning American troops, New York, December 1918 | [82] |
| The “Mauretania” arriving at New York, December 1918 | [82] |
| Boat drill on a Cunard hospital ship | [86] |
| The “Aquitania’s” garden lounge as hospital ward | [88] |
| The “Aurania” ashore after being torpedoed | [90] |
| The “Ivernia” settling down | [90] |
| The “Ivernia” survivors arriving in port | [94] |
| Troops landing from the “Mauretania” | [94] |
| The “Dwinsk” settling down after being torpedoed | [96] |
| Survivors from the “Dwinsk” after eight days in the lifeboat | [96] |
| The “Mauretania” leaving Southampton | [98] |
| “Father Neptune” cared little for the preying submarines | [102] |
| An armed cruiser’s range finder | [102] |
| The “Thracia” fast | [104] |
| The “Aquitania” re-appears in the Mersey | [106] |
| Officers of the torpedoed “Franconia” | [110] |
| A Cunard crew buying war savings certificates | [110] |
| One of the American howitzers, assembled at the Cunard works | [112] |
| The “Aquitania’s” chapel | [112] |
| Cunard national aeroplane factory | [114] |
| Interior of the aeroplane factory (i) | [118] |
| Interior of the aeroplane factory (ii) | [118] |
| Interior of the aeroplane factory (iii) | [120] |
| Russian refugees on the “Phrygia” | [120] |
| One of the rooms in the Cunard shell works | [122] |
| A Record of “striking” value | [122] |
| A hospital ward in the lounge of the “Mauretania” | [126] |
| The “Aquitania” lounge as orderly room | [128] |
| Officers’ ward in the smoking room of the “Aquitania” | [128] |
| Men’s ward in the lounge of the “Aquitania” | [132] |
| The “Franconia” sinking | [136] |
FOREWORD
There was never a time in our history when the value of the Mercantile Marine to our national life was as apparent as it is to-day. After passing through the crucible of war, we are what we are, mainly, because we are the possessors of ships.
When the Great War came, we possessed only a small, though highly trained, Army, and the guns of our Navy extended little further than high-water mark. How could we, a community of islanders, in partnership with other islanders living in Dominions thousands of miles away, hope to make our strength felt on the battlefields of the Continent of Europe, where the military Powers were mobilising conscript armies counted not by thousands, but by millions? The original Expeditionary Force, as finely tempered a fighting instrument as ever existed, was at once thrown across the Channel in merchant ships and it held in check the victorious army of Germany, saving by a miracle, the Channel ports; then, having mobilised on the eve of the declaration of war, the Royal Navy, the great protective force of the British peoples, we mobilised also the Merchant Navy, their essential sustaining force, bridged the oceans of the world, and concentrated on the conflict the enormous and varied powers of the 400,000,000 inhabitants of the Commonwealth. In Belgium and France as in the Pacific, in Gallipoli as in Eastern Africa, in Salonica as in Mesopotamia, and in Italy as in Palestine, British troops were soon confronting the forces of the Central Alliance; every ocean was dominated by British men-of-war. The enemies had the advantage of interior military lines, but by the aid of ships—carrying troops, munitions, and stores—we gradually forged a hoop of steel round them and slowly but irresistibly drew it tighter and tighter until, their economic power having been strangled by sea power, their naval and military power was weakened and they were compelled to sue for peace. If it had not been for our ships—ships of commerce drawing strength from the seas, and ships of war, efficiently policing those seas—the Allies could not by any possibility have won the Great War and Germans would to-day be the dominant race, not only in Europe, but in both hemispheres.