page_title: British merchant seamen of World War II
section_title: Killed or missing
hierarchical_section_title: British merchant seamen of World War II / Under attack / Killed or missing
caption_attribution_description: English: Death certificate for Albert Edward Smith, lost at sea in the North Atlantic, 6 February 1942.
context_page_description: Merchant seamen crewed the ships of the British Merchant Navy which kept the United Kingdom supplied with raw materials, arms, ammunition, fuel, food and all of the necessities of a nation at war throughout World War II — literally enabling the country to defend itself. In doing this, they sustained a considerably greater casualty rate than almost every other branch of the armed services and suffered great hardship. Seamen were aged from fourteen through to their late seventies.
  The office of the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen calculated that 144,000 merchant seamen were serving aboard British registered merchant ships at the outbreak of World War II and that up to 185,000 men and women served in the Merchant Navy during the war. 36,749 seamen and women were lost to enemy action, 5,720 were taken prisoner and 4,707 were wounded, totaling 47,176 casualties, a minimum casualty rate of over 25 percent. Mr Gabe Thomas, the former Registrar General of Shipping and Seaman stated that "27 percent of merchant seamen died through enemy action".
context_section_description: Once torpedoed, merchant ships behaved very differently, a tanker carrying high octane aviation fuel might explode into flame, spreading a film of burning fuel across the sea all around the ship as it sank, a ship loaded with timber might 
  remain afloat for several days, a ship with a cargo of bulk iron ore would usually sink in less than 60 seconds as water quickly flooded the cargo holds. Sometimes there might be time to launch the ship's boats, but other times seamen could be struggling to survive in the water trying to hang onto any floating debris.
  It is difficult to estimate the total number of merchant seamen who lost their lives during World War II because the government of the time did not grant them the automatic right of commemoration by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Unlike the Armed Services in which every wartime death by whatever means was recorded and commemorated, the seamen of the Merchant Navy could only be remembered if their death could be proven to be attributable to enemy action. 36,749 members of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleet are commemorated and could be counted.
  In March 1946 Sir William Elderton (statistical advisor to the Ministry of War Transport , reported 34,018 deaths aboard British registered vessels or ashore abroad. He divided this total into 27,790 who died by enemy action and 6,228 who died by other causes (including those aboard ships which disappeared or died as the result of ships being sunk by friendly sea mines or being lost overboard in storms).  He advised adjustments to his war deaths figure to 28,230, but did not account for an estimated 4,537 men missing aboard small vessels in the Far East. Up to the end of 1945, the Ministry of Pensions knew of 1,078 merchant seamen who had died ashore "at home" from wounds, the effects of exposure while awaiting rescue in open boats and so on. In reply to a question in the House of Commons the then Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, cited 30,189 deaths by enemy action and it was acknowledged that 5,264 seamen were still listed as missing, this was to update a previously quoted total of 30,248 killed and 4,654 missing. Writing in 1968, Vice-Admiral Schofield quoted an estimate of 32,952 deaths of British merchant seamen from enemy action, and Gabe Thomas, former "Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen" in his own book stated the casualty total was 32,076 dead by enemy action, he stated that was a 27 percent casualty rate.
  A count of the Merchant Navy casualties who are commemorated by the "CWGC", gives the figures below and a total of 36,749 dead.
  The deaths of 2,713 Naval and DEMS gunners and 1,222 gunners of the Maritime Regiment Royal Artillery are commemorated separately amongst the Armed Forces casualties. 
  At least 182 South Africans and 72 (possibly up to 146) New Zealanders died, probably being counted within the British Merchant Navy total in the same way that the Chinese dead are. Potentially there are up to 6,228 more Merchant Seamen who died but are not commemorated.
caption: Certificate of Death – Merchant Navy – 1942
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