More Days, More Dollars

More Days, More Dollars examines the British merchant service between 1885 and 1920, when it became the largest carrier of passengers, manufactured goods and raw materials in the world. Sail remained important, but steamships, ocean liners and deep-sea tramp vessels increasingly organised global trade into regular routes and commercial networks.

The outbreak of the First World War transformed this vast civilian fleet into an essential supply system. Merchant crews faced mines, submarines and unrestricted warfare while carrying food, fuel and troops, and their losses revealed how completely Britain’s survival depended upon ships that were only lightly defended.