The Rescue Ships

xx, 172 pp. Includes 24 photographs. In the opening years of the 1939-1945 war thousands of merchant seamen lost their lives through enemy action. Hospital ships could not accompany convoys--such ships had to be lighted at night, and would have betrayed the convoy positions. In any case the enemy did not respect their immunity under the Geneva Convention. The solution was Rescue Ships, Merchant Navy vessels of about 15,00 gross tons, mostly from coastal trade. Their low free-board enabled them to get men more easily over the side. They could steam at 11 or 12 knots and so work astern of a convoy and regain station afterwards. These small ships were commanded and manned by Merchant Navy personnel; each carried a naval medical officer and a sick-berth attendant, and was fitted with a hospital and operating theatre. The life-saving equipment included rescue boats, Carley floats, float nets, scrambling nets, booms, grab hooks and hoists. Twenty-nine Rescue Ships were provided during the war.--jacket