Chapter I: Preface

This volume is an attempt to trace the history of the Mercantile Marine, and to show the reader how much we owe to our ancestors for the ingenuity, enterprise, courage and perseverance by which the Merchant Service has been built up for the good of nations, the increase of trade and the spread of civilisation.

In other volumes I have endeavoured to trace the history of ships. The subject here considered is the birth and growth of a sea service, without which the navies of the world become useless and indeed could never have been brought into being. It is high time that the public appreciated all that is meant by the term Mercantile Marine.

The part played by commercial ships as fighting craft during the recent war does not enter into this book. This section was largely treated of in my _Q-Ships and Their Story_, and other writers have drawn attention to the dangers and difficulties of freighters and passenger ships carrying on through the period of hostilities. Those four years form so small a chapter in the thousands of years during which the trader has been winning its way across the seas, that it is unnecessary to deal with them here. Our aim is rather to consider the progress of the Mercantile Marine as a whole, from the earliest times to the latest liner development.

The story here submitted is the result of many years of research, travel and ship study. I have had access to many manuscripts and printed books too numerous to mention. I desire to return thanks to Messrs. T. H. Parker, 12A Berkeley Street, W., for permission to use some invaluable, rare prints; and to the Cunard and White Star Lines for certain other illustrations of a magnificent service.

E. KEBLE CHATTERTON.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. INTRODUCTION 1

II. THE DEMAND FOR MERCHANT SHIPPING 7

III. THE MEDITERRANEAN MERCANTILE MARINE 17

IV. THE MERCHANT SHIPS OF THE NORTH 30

V. THE GROWTH OF THE MERCANTILE MARINE 42

VI. THE MERCANTILE MARINE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 53

VII. FISHERMEN AND MERCHANTMEN 62

VIII. SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY SEAFARIN 75

IX. MERCANTILE SUPREMACY AT SEA 90

X. MIGHTY MERCHANTMEN 103

XI. PACKET SHIPS AND BRIGS 119

XII. THE SAIL-CARRIERS 134

XIII. CRACKING-ON 150

XIV. THE TRIUMPH OF STEAM 168

XV. THE IRON AND STEEL AGE 182

XVI. THE MODERN MERCHANT SHIP 194

XVII. THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GERMAN MERCANTILE MARINE 208

XVIII. THE AMERICAN MERCANTILE MARINE 220

XIX. THE MINOR MERCANTILE MARINES 229

XX. THE FUTURE OF THE MERCANTILE MARINE 238