Cunard White Star Line's Britannic at sea. Launched by Harland and Wolff in 1929 she was the penultimate ship to join White Star before the merger with Cunard.
Not sure if it was her maiden voyage as there is no info on the print that I recently purchased. On completing his cadetship with Furness Withy group, my father did one voyage as AB on Britannic, London-New York-Liverpool, from 29 October 1937 to 23 November 1937.
After a couple of short voyages as AB on Cunard's Ascania he became Third Mate on Furness Withy's Pacific Grove with regular sailings to North Pacific ports. During the war years he was Second Mate on Harmatris, Harlesden and Cape Howe, which involved him in Arctic Convoys, the invasions of both Sicily and Italy and then shuttling supplies into Antwerp as soon as the port was opened to the Allies.
I knew very little of my late father's wartime experiences until I decided to claim his Arctic Star as next of kin. I then found that he had never bothered to claim any of the other campaign medals or the oak leaf to which he was entitled. Using information from his old Discharge Book together with Lloyds archival records of his ships movements I managed to compile a record of all his ships and voyages and then to obtain his full set of medals. I guess I became very proud of what he and so many other ordinary seamen in the Merchant Navy achieved in those six years.
The Arctic Star, as I'm sure you are already aware, is probably the most prestigious but as you rightly say even the most humble member of the crew of any WWII merchant ship deserved their medal for simply being aboard in those horrendous days.[/COLOR]
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