Its Merchant Navy Day today.

[Frank Manning]

Commemorations at the Merchant Navy War Memorial on Tower Hill. A chance for us to remember the forgotten people who through loneliness, isolation, danger, and the threat of piracy, bring us 90% of everything we take for granted in our consumer society. Spare them a thought when you are cruising through the traffic separation schemes off the Portugese coast or through the Straights of Gib and you see a container ship, tanker, or bulk carrier. Those are real people on there.

[emjay45]

Thanks for the reminder Frank. I like to think of departed family members on this day.

[oldbluefox]

They will not enjoy the luxuries we do on the seas, and think how different our lives would be were it not for them. My father was in the Royal Navy during the war and was on Ark Royal when it sank. I often wonder if I inherited his love of the sea, albeit from the comfort of a cruise ship.

[jay-ell71]

Once on Aurora we were encountering a bit of rough in the Bay.... i sat on the aft deck on one of Aurora's "wings" and watched a Container sailing a similar course. The Container kept disappearing completely in the troughs. I do not know how the sailors endure, and I was so very grateful that I was on a cruise ship, Aurora was pretty steady but listing rather much. I always remember that Container when it gets a bit lumpy on a cruise.

[howard18]

Let us also not forget those who served on the convoys to Russia during the second world war bringing badly needed supplies.
This is regardless of what Putin thinks of the U.K. now as a second rate country.

Howard