Merchant Marines for a beginner

[Kitty55]

Hi

I'm trying to find something out about a local merchant marine but have no idea what they did during the war.

I'm not a military historian so I need something easy to read that will give me a good over view of their work during the war.

But please I need it to be about the normal marine not the high ranking officers - something on Wireless Officers/Operators perhaps as that's what my local was.

Online sites are either just too confusing or none existent.

 

Thanks and take care, Kitty

[ARABIS]

I have a paperback copy of The History of the Radio Officer in the British Merchant Navy and on Deep-Sea Trawlers, by Joanna Greenlaw [Dinefwr Press] which is probably now out of print but might be available through Abebooks etc.

The Merchant Marine was what the Merchant Navy was called up to the end of the Great War, so a civilian undertaking as such.

 

The following is from His Majesty's Merchant Navy by Talbot Booth.

Wireless Officers and the Marconi Company.

Wireless Officers or "Sparks" are not, strictly speaking, members of the British Merchant Navy. They are employees of the Marconi International Marine Radio Co. They receive their training in shore establishments and are "lent" by the company to the shipping lines.

If there is not always an operator in the wireless cabin or room, an automatic alarm is connected to the officer's cabin so that at all times of the day or night there is a constant watch.

 

If you google Marconi Wireless Officers you should find more there. 

[MaureenE]

Online books

History of the Great War based on Official Documents: The Merchant Navy by Archibald Hurd 1921-1929. Volume I, Volume II, Archive.org. Volume III is available as a transcribed edition on Naval-History.net

Click on coloured text for links

 

Cheers

Maureen

[Kitty55]

Thanks to you both

I'd been searching for books on the merchant navy everywhere online and in old book shops but as a layman found nothing that I could understand.

 

I've already downloaded those you suggested Maureene and put them on my iPad Air2 so if the weather is as good tomorrow as it's been today I can read them, do some gardening, read some more etc.

 

I'm going to search able books etc in a little while but thanks for the extract you've quoted ARABIS - explains a lot.

 

The experts on here were confusing me earlier. I got really mixed up with merchant marines, royal navy, merchant navy, etc.

 

I've found several different Dereham men who were in all of the above but no documentation that helped me as to who did what as wireless operators (or the other versions of their title) and what their jobs were/entailed during the war. So thought I'd ask about books for beginners - after all that's me.

 

Thanks and take care, Kitty

Edited 31 March , 2017 by Kitty55

[The Scorer]

You might also use the term "Mercantile Marine" - here's a Wiki article about the Mercantile Marine War Medal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantile_Marine_War_Medal