Transcriber’s Note Italic text displayed as: _italic_ _BOOKS ON THE SEA BY_ E. KEBLE CHATTERTON _HISTORICAL_ Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY SAILING SHIPS AND THEIR STORY SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS FORE AND AFT: THE STORY OF THE FORE AND AFT RIG STEAMSHIPS AND THEIR STORY THE ROMANCE OF THE SHIP THE STORY OF THE BRITISH NAVY KING’S CUTTERS AND SMUGGLERS THE ROMANCE OF PIRACY THE OLD EAST INDIAMEN _CRUISES_ DOWN CHANNEL IN THE “VIVETTE” THROUGH HOLLAND IN THE “VIVETTE” THE MERCANTILE MARINE The Life of Sir Ernest Shackleton. By _Dr. Hugh R. Mill_. Demy 8vo. Illustrated. Price about 21_s._ net. The Life & Letters of Walter H. Page. By _Burton J. Hendrick_. In two volumes. Sixth impression. Demy 8vo. 36_s._ net. The Letters of Lord & Lady Wolseley. Edited by _Sir George Arthur._ Second impression, with a new index. Demy 8vo. 25_s._ net. Knole & the Sackvilles. By _V. Sackville-West_. With many illustrations. Second impression. Demy 8vo. 25_s._ net. Woodrow Wilson & World Settlement. By _Ray Stannard Baker_. In three volumes. Demy 8vo. Vols. I & II, 36_s._ net. Vol. III (sold separately) 18_s._ net. [Illustration: [_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._ H.E. INDIA COMPANY’S SHIP “WILLIAM FAIRLIE.” Commanded by Captain Thomas Blair, leaving the harbour of Prince of Wales’ Island. About 1828.] THE MERCANTILE MARINE BY E. KEBLE CHATTERTON [Illustration] LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN, LTD. _First published, 1923_ _Printed in Great Britain_ PREFACE This volume is an attempt to trace the history of the Mercantile Marine, and to show the reader how much we owe to our ancestors for the ingenuity, enterprise, courage and perseverance by which the Merchant Service has been built up for the good of nations, the increase of trade and the spread of civilisation. In other volumes I have endeavoured to trace the history of ships. The subject here considered is the birth and growth of a sea service, without which the navies of the world become useless and indeed could never have been brought into being. It is high time that the public appreciated all that is meant by the term Mercantile Marine. The part played by commercial ships as fighting craft during the recent war does not enter into this book. This section was largely treated of in my _Q-Ships and Their Story_, and other writers have drawn attention to the dangers and difficulties of freighters and passenger ships carrying on through the period of hostilities. Those four years form so small a chapter in the thousands of years during which the trader has been winning its way across the seas, that it is unnecessary to deal with them here. Our aim is rather to consider the progress of the Mercantile Marine as a whole, from the earliest times to the latest liner development.