It is a subject for sincere regret that the recent craze for amalgamation has obliterated so many landmarks in the history of our shipping. In a very few years names which were household words with us will have disappeared. Ismay, Imrie & Co., the Inman Company, the Guion Line, the West India and Pacific, the Dominion Line, the old Bibby Line have all already gone, and have become absorbed in still larger companies. The process is still making headway, and in a few years very few of the old companies will be left, and the headquarters of our great shipping industry will be in London. This will not make for the general prosperity of Liverpool, and we shall miss the old Liverpool shipowner in many ways. It will, however, be always pleasant to think of how nobly he did his duty. Messrs. MacIver, Inman, Ismay, Allan, Beazley, Sir Alfred Jones were all distinguished by their public spirit and their generous support of our charities, particularly those associated with the welfare of the sailor, and no Port in the world is so well equipped with institutions which care for his welfare. CHAPTER V OUR MERCHANT SHIPS AND THE WAR _She walks the water like a thing of life And seems to dare the elements to strife._ --Byron. The active part taken by our merchant ships in the War, and the brave deeds of our seamen are perhaps too recent to be considered "reminiscent," yet we cannot but feel that any story of the doings of our merchant navy during the past fifty years would be very incomplete without some reference to the noble part it played in the stirring events of the last five years, and how largely it contributed to the glorious and victorious result. The task of giving even a fragmentary account of the part which the Mercantile Marine took in the mighty conflict is rendered difficult in consequence of the lack of authoritative information, owing to the severe (but very proper) censorship exercised over the press during the War, and we shall have to await the official accounts to enable us to appreciate fully its work. But we know, however, sufficient of the arduous work of our seamen during this period, their courage and endurance in times of stress and peril, and their indomitable pluck in going to sea without any hesitation, knowing by experience the dangers they would encounter, to rank their services among the most valorous in the history of our Country.