Hundreds of thousands of seafarers made a significant contribution to the Allied war effort in the Second World War. Seafarers of different nationalities sailed with different nations' merchant fleets, with risks comparable to servicemen in the armed forces.


This is the first time the history of the seafarers from most of the Allied maritime nations, has been gathered in one anthology. The multinational contributors of this anthology share their insights on the history of seafarers in the merchant fleets of the USA, Great Britain, Norway, the Netherlands, Greece and Yugoslavia. The history of Chinese and Indian seafarers on Allied ships is also explored, together with more general topics like coastal convoys and surveillance of seafarers.


The different articles in this book underline the value of collecting the history of a broad spectrum of nationalities of both ships and crews. Collectively, the articles bring new and different perspectives on the history of seafarers in the Allied merchant fleets during the Second World War.