Merchant Navy Memorial Garden

Before I retired I was in the Merchant Navy for about 40 years first working on BP Tankers as an engineer and finally ending up on one of BPs floating oil production units as a safety advisor. So I have a bit of an affinity for Merchant Navy history.

4,700 British-flagged ships were sunk and 30,248 merchant seamen and fishermen who lost their lives during WW2 and have no known grave, a death rate that was higher proportionately than in any of the armed forces. BP lost almost half of it’s fleet of 93 vessels during the war transporting fuel for the armed forces was probably not the safest job in the world.

The memorial stands on the south side of the garden of Trinity Square, London, close to The Tower Hill tube station where I arrived. It has 2 sections on for the First World War and one for the second.

My first call was at the BP Tankers most of which were called British something or other they are not hard to find and tucked away in the first alcove. I sailed on a couple of tankers that were renamed after those lost in the war. I also dropped off some flowers as a mark of respect.

After that I started searching for some of the ships I have dived on and were sunk in the war notably the the Thistlegorm and Rosalie Moller both sunk off Sini in Egypt.

I found the ‘gorm but not the Moller It maybe that the crewman who died during the sinking of the Moller was recovered.

I’ve dived a couple of WW1 wrecks too but these are much harder to find as the plaques are much higher on a different monument.

In the memorial garden there is a ships anchor which is the traditional place to lay wreaths.