Fiddler’s Green

Fiddler’s Green follows the British merchant navy from the difficult peace after 1918 through depression, rearmament and the Second World War. Shipping companies and crews entered the Battle of the Atlantic after years of falling freight rates and reduced investment, yet again became indispensable to Britain’s supply and military strategy.

The final part examines post-war reconstruction, decolonisation, containerisation and the decline of British-owned shipping. Companies disappeared, ports changed and generations of seafarers lost a way of life, turning the twentieth century’s largest maritime service into a greatly diminished industry by 2010.