The Unknown Navy: Canada's World War II Merchant Navy

Compared to the well-published achievements of the Navy, Army and Air Force, an ocean of silence surrounds the long gone Canadian Merchant Navy. And yet, Canada operated the wartime world's fourth largest Merchant Navy, almost all of it built in Canadian shipyards.

Robert Halford provides an in-depth look at the Merchant Navy from its glorious beginnings to its unceremonious dissolution. During wartime, the merchant seamen were the heroes of the 1939-1945 war, the fourth arm of the Services. By 1948 they had undergone a quick image change, transformed from heroes to anonymous troublemakers hindering the shipping industry. The Unknown Navy endeavours to throw light on the Merchant Navy's important contribution to the Allied cause during World War II.