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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 August 2016
The paper deals with the mortality and sickness of merchant seamen and with certain other matters that were connected in one way or another with the main subject.
The work underlying the paper was undertaken for the Ministry of War Transport (now the Ministry of Transport) and a report differing little from the present paper was completed in March 1946. I am much indebted to the Minister of Transport for leave to publish the information and for his interest in the work. I should also like to put on record the encouragement I received at an earlier stage from his predecessor and throughout from Sir Cyril Hurcomb, the Secretary (Director General) of the Ministry. Though I am, of course, responsible for the statistical analysis, I have had much help and criticism from the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen, Mr W. J. Killingback, M.B.E. Both he and the office of the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen at Cardiff, especially Mr C. F. Knight, have given me valuable information and advice without which I should have been in still greater difficulty in understanding and interpreting the statistics. Mr E. A. J. Heath, F.I.A., who was an Assistant Statistical Adviser at the Ministry, made the analyses of the discharges on grounds of ill health which are given in paragraphs 15–18 and in Tables 6 and 7. His experience of permanent sickness insurance was a valuable asset; he also helped in other ways in connexion with the work.
page 251 note * Vessels chartered to the United Kingdom under ‘bareboat’ charters (e.g. those vessels obtained under the ‘lend-lease’ arrangements with the United States of America) sailed under the British flag and were manned by British seamen. Casualties among the crews of these vessels are included in Table 1, and the tonnage is included in the figures used in making the estimates of population in paragraph 5.
page 257 note * The census figure does not include persons ashore in the United Kingdom at the time of the census; the deaths exclude deaths that occurred ashore in the United Kingdom. The term ‘at sea’ is defined in Appendix (b) as meaning ‘between the time of leaving the shore of the United Kingdom and the time of again landing ashore in the United Kingdom provided the person remains a seaman’. A man would remain a seaman if ashore abroad or in hospital abroad, but not if he left his ship at a foreign port to take up other employment.
page 258 note * The total excess deaths of 30,000 (or average of 5000 a year) include deaths as prisoners of war, and the population must therefore include an allowance for prisoners. The number of prisoners increased as the war progressed. The maximum was about 3500, of which about 1000 were in the Far East. The average over the six years of war can be put at about 1750.
page 270 note * The word ‘corresponding’ is most important. It would be wrong to add to the deaths ‘at sea’ the deaths in the United Kingdom recorded by the Registrar-General of Births and Deaths as occurring among ‘seamen’ because these would relate to a large number of people who cannot be regarded as merchant seamen.
