FISHERMEN IN WAR TIME 



beginning of the war to the British Armies and to 

 those of our Allies : —  



Men ... ... ... 13,000,000 



Horses ... ... ... 2,000,000 



Vehicles ... ... ... 500,000 



Tons of explosives and supplies 25,000,000 



Tons of coal and oil fuel ... 51,000,000 



Of the 13,000,000 men who had crossed and re- 

 crossed the sea, only 3,500 had been lost — 2,700 

 through the action of the enemy, and the remainder 

 through the ordinary perils of the sea. This was 

 apart from the prodigious quantity of food and 

 other materials transported, amounting in all 10 

 130,000,000 tons transported in British ships. Never 

 before in the history of the world had the British 

 Navy been, a more potent and a more beneficent in- 

 fluence in the affairs of men. 



Speaking at the same time and on the same sub- 

 ject in the House of Lords, Earl Curzon supple- 

 mented these details by saying that 30,000 tons of 

 stores and supplies and 7,000 men were being car- 

 ried daily to France, and 570 ships of one and three- 

 quarter million tons of shipping were continually 

 employed in carrying troops and stores to all the 

 theatres of war. In 1914 the Navy Estimates pro- 

 vided for 145,000 officers and men; the strength of 

 the Navy now was 430,000. The total tonnage in 

 1914 was 4,000,000 tons ; it was now 6,000,000. 

 Over 3,300 vessels were engaged as mine-sweepers 



170 " 



