In advance of Merchant Navy Day our CEO Sara Baade has been thinking about the young merchant seafarer lives lost in two world wars and how today’s Gen Z seafarers are approaching a very different life at sea, sources Sailors Society.
Young Crew
As CEO of a maritime charity, I know that during both wars we relied on merchant ships bringing supplies from across the North and South Atlantic. I know that the seafarers on board those ships lived with the very real and constant fear of attack from an enemy that could launch torpedoes from invisible submarines as well as barrages from their own vessels. But I was shocked to learn that it was common for those ships to have crew as young as 14. As a mum of teenagers, I was also heartbroken to learn that so many of these young people were among the 30,248 merchant seamen who lost their lives during the Second World War. Teenage seafarers, like brothers Ken and Ray Lewis, died aged just 14 and 15 when the SS Fiscus was sunk by a U-boat. I cannot imagine how terrifying it must have been for those young seafarers, or what long-term trauma the young survivors carried with them for years afterwards.
I cannot imagine how terrifying it must have been for those young seafarers, or what long-term trauma the young survivors carried with them for years afterwards. Back then wellness awareness and support were almost non-existent. Advice on how to cope with life at sea would have been limited to that given by seafarers in the family or through the false bravado of fellow crew members. That bravado would also have been the closest they got to peer-to-peer support. I am so grateful that for today’s young seafarers – thankfully a lot older than 14 – strong and informed advice and support is now there for them. This is especially important as, for many, their first post will be their first time at sea. It’s why we launched our Wellness at Sea Maritime Schools’ Conferences, now in their third year and available to cadets across the world. Without these conferences, for many, the advice would still come from seafaring family members. Without our Peer-to-Peer Support Groups for Cadets, they would still have to rely on that false bravado for support. Thankfully the fears of these new Gen Z seafarers don’t include U-boat attacks or facing death on a daily basis.
Honoring Seamen
This year we are also holding our first event especially for UK cadets. And it seems fitting to mention this here, as was for the right to grow up and go to sea in a free country that their young merchant navy forebears sailed and died in those two world wars. So, on Sunday, I, with thousands of others, will pause to remember and honor those merchant seamen and women who sailed and served during two world wars. Especially those young men who went to sea so unprepared for what they were about to face. But I’ll also say a grateful prayer of thanks that we are helping today’s young seafarers to be better prepared, to be able to take their welfare into their own hands and to live their best lives at sea.
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Source: SailorsSociety
