'MN
DEDICATED TO ALL
SEAFARERS WHO LOST
THEIR LIVES IN
CONFLICTS AT SEA
AND FOR WHOM THERE
ARE NO KNOWN GRAVES
SAVE THOSE OF THE
OCEAN
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM'
Sunday, April 13, 2014: Lord
Tollemache, Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk, unveiled the three-ton granite
memorial, put in place on Orwell Quay after a year-long £13,000
fundraising campaign by the Ipswich branch of the Merchant Navy
Association (MNA). It is the first time Ipswich, with its rich merchant
navy history stretching back more than 1,000 years, has had a memorial
dedicated to the merchant seamen who lost their lives at sea in
wartime, often taking part in dangerous missions to bring food and
other necessary cargo home to Britain. During World War II alone,
nearly twice as many merchant seafarers lost their lives at sea as
Royal Navy seamen. A gap in our history is filled by this modest but
important monument.
Below: July 2014 and with a (perhaps) appropriate naval vessel
in the background.
'LOST
TO THE
CRUEL SEA, WHICH WAS
MADE EVEN
MORE CRUEL BY MAN'
This poignant text below the
compass rose evoke the name of the corvet at the centre of the novel The Cruel Sea by Nicholas
Montserrat. We assume that this is not a quotation and
that the use of 'cruel sea' comes from the Montserrat novel title; the
story which dealt with such power with the futility of war and the
perils of the convoys.
2014
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