Merchant Navy Training Programmes - Fact Sheet (added 18th January 2006)

The Merchant Navy today represents a perfect choice for a secure and long term career, and never before have there been so many exciting opportunities for new entrants into the industry with such a bright future, both at sea and on-shore.

Britain and the world depend upon the seafarers of the Merchant Navy to carry every conceivable type of cargo from raw materials used in manufacture to the manufactured products themselves. Millions of passengers and vehicles are transported, and the Merchant Navy is also involved in highly specialised marine operations including exploration, engineering, supply and support, resource extraction, cable laying, dredging and emergency support at sea.

Considerable Global Maritime Influence

A Long and Rich Heritage

Although the history of merchant ships and their seafarers extend back thousands of years, our Merchant Navy began to take the form that is has today in the fifteenth century. The triggering factor was a dramatic increase in trade and commerce as merchants were increasingly able to travel further and further afield in their search for commodities and markets. By the sixteenth century, global exploration had virtually become an industry of its own with Elizabethan seamen and navigators pushing the boundaries of travel ever further. This was the time when the likes of Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh and Martin Frobisher gave foundation to the might of Britain as a sea power.

As the British Empire continued to expand, a clearer distinction between two navies, a navy as a military service and a navy as a merchant service, began to evolve. Trading entrepreneurs found that combining their resources made for a far more effective way of exploiting the newly developed trading routes, and so companies began to evolve. These companies began to specialise in an attempt to secure lucrative monopolies in particular parts of the world and to try and dominate certain types of commodities. The first English trading company granted a royal charter to be set up on a joint stock basis, with the profits and losses being shared amongst the participants, was the Muscovy Company founded in 1553. The Hudson’s Bay Company, founded in 1668 still exists today.

The Honourable East India Company was to become the most powerful company in the Merchant Navy in that era, with its influence extending for 250 years. Incorporated by royal charter of Queen Elizabeth I in 1600 the company started with 215 shareholders and a share capital of £72,000, a considerable amount at the time. The company soon amassed a large and technologically advanced fleet and established trading centres not just in the Indian subcontinent but across the world. The company also established shipyards for the construction of their own ships in order to maintain the high standards they had evolved.

The 19th century saw the growth of competition from new private fleets which began to erode the monopoly of the East India Company. The British government enforced open trading rights in India in 1813 and China in 1833 which finally allowed the Merchant Navy to develop into the multi-fleeted independent industry it is today. The East India Company finally ceased trading in 1858.

Some Historical British Maritime Personalities

Grace Horsley Darling (1815 – 1842)

Awarded the gold medal of the Royal Humane Society in 1838 for her part in the heroic rescue of survivors from the merchant vessel Forfarshire in a violent storm. With her father, the Longstone Lighthouse keeper, Grace set out in a small fishing boat and against all odds returned with four men and a woman. A total of nine people were rescued.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806 – 1859)

The inspired engineer renowned for his innovative approach to marine engineering. Brunel in 1838 launched the Great Western which was then the largest ship afloat and the first steamship to make regular crossings of the Atlantic. Five years later his Great Britain was launched awing the world as the first large iron steamship and the first to be fitted with the highly effective method of propulsion using a screw propeller. His marine engineering methods form the basis of standard practice in shipbuilding today.

Sir Samuel Cunard (1787 – 1865)

A British ship owner who in 1838 won the tender from the British government to build and operate steamships across the Atlantic linking Liverpool and Boston with the first scheduled passenger service.

Sir George Burns (1795 – 1890)

Joining forces with Samuel Cunard Burns was a fleet owner who co-founded the Cunard Line to fulfil a government contract to carry transatlantic mail.

Sir Donald Currie (1825 – 1909)

Lesser known for his promotion to the Admiralty of using fast merchant ships as auxiliaries in time of war, Currie was the founder of a fleet of sailing ships that provided the Castle Line service to India. In 1872 he pioneered the steamship service to South Africa which later resulted in a merger of the two to become the Union Castle Line.

Sir Walter Runciman (1847 – 1937)

The founder of the Moor and Anchor shipping lines.

Some Historic British Merchant Navy Ships

The Enterprise

The first vessel to significantly supplement the use of sails with steam propulsion. In 1821 she sailed from London to Calcutta, a journey of almost 11,500 miles, in only 103 days her speedy voyage greatly assisted by the use of her steam driven paddlewheels.

The R.M.S Carmania

The first of the Cunard liners to be equipped with steam turbines. The Carmania was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and converted to an armed merchant cruiser in World War I. She was awarded with a silver plate from Nelson’s dinner service after winning a duel with the German Cap Trafalgar.

The Hindustan

A wooden paddle steamer that plied between Britain and India from1842, she was the first ship specifically built to carry passengers rather than cargo.

The R.M.S Britannia

One of the original wooden paddle steamer ships in the Cunard fleet. Her return from Boston after her maiden voyage was of historical note in that the local people had to cut a seven mile long channel through the ice to ensure that she sailed on time.