MEMORIAL services have been held around Australia today to honour the civilian seafarers who served aboard merchant ships in times of war.
In World War I and II, in particular, these men and women played a vital role in sustaining the Allied war effort, often under extreme danger and with little recognition.
In Australia it coincides with Australian National Flag Day, allowing the Australian Red Ensign flown by Australian-registered merchant ships, to be flown on land for the day.
3 September marks the anniversary of the first Allied merchant ship attack in WWII—the torpedoing of the SS Athenia by German submarine U-30 on 3 September 1939, just hours after Britain declared war.
The attack killed more than 110 crew and passengers, and signalled the start of a perilous era for merchant shipping.
More than 800 Australian merchant mariners lost their lives during the World Wars, a casualty rate higher than any other service branch in WWII.
Merchant ships, many of them unarmed, carried troops and wounded personnel, ammunition, food, and fuel and evacuated civilians and strategic cargo.
They relied on naval escorts or hasty conversions into armed merchant cruisers.