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THE FLEETS BEHIND THE FLEET

The Work of the Merchant Seamen and Fishermen in the War

by

W. MACNEILE DIXON

Professor in the University of Glasgow







[Illustration]

New York
George H. Doran Company

Copyright, 1917.
By George H. Doran Company

Printed in the United States of America




FOREWORD


What follows is not written to praise our merchant sailors and
fishermen. They are indeed worthy of all praise. But we looked for
nothing else than that they would in every circumstance of trial and
danger show themselves to be what they are, peerless. At what date or
on what occasion in their history have they failed? From a fierier
ordeal a firmer courage and a harder resolution have emerged, as we
believed it would. Of this the world is already very well aware. Their
friends know it and their foes. What remains then is not to praise them
but to instruct ourselves. Our vision has been limited. We knew that
in the Navy lay our