We Never got any Privileges

A lot of the Canadians don’t even know what the merchant marine was all about, especially during the war. If it wasn’t for the merchant marine, the Germans would have taken England easily. Because they tried with their submarines to starve the British but they didn’t succeed, thank God. The merchant marines kept England alive. You know, when the ship was sunk our pay was cut off. We never got any money. And when we got home, we never had any . . . I had to go back to sea and we never had any privileges like the army fellows. They got more education. There was a house in Halifax, army houses in Halifax that were going for two thousand dollars. The merchant navy weren’t classified as Veterans so we were left out of that, a lot of privileges that the military got and we didn’t get a thing. I think they made a big mistake, when they didn’t give the merchant seamen. We were in the Battle of the Atlantic long before any of those fellas even stepped on a ship or went to war and a lot of our fellas, a good many of them are lost. It was very dangerous waters, the Battle of the Atlantic. I feel sorry for the ones that were lost at sea because, you know, we have no markers, no gravestones for the ones that are lost at sea, and there’s a good many of them.

Mr. Yeadon compares the treatment of the Canadian Armed Forces vs. the Merchant Navy with respect to post-war benefits, particularly since merchant service had begun, in many cases, long before active military service.

Francis Edison Yeadon

Francis Edison Yeadon was born in Spryfield, Nova Scotia, on September 24, 1924. He was the youngest in a family of eight. After leaving school at the age of 16, he joined the Merchant Navy in Halifax. Mr. Yeadon completed one successful North Atlantic convoy, before being captured at sea while transporting a shipload of arms to India. He remained aboard the German “raider” for several months, finally being turned over to the Japanese at Yokohama. Included is a good account of the American bombing(s) which led to Japan’s capitulation. Mr. Yeadon remained in the merchant marine after the war, due, as he says, to the lack of educational opportunities offered to Veterans of the Armed Forces.

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 2:37
Person Interviewed:: Francis Edison Yeadon
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Battle/Campaign:: North Atlantic
Branch:: Merchant Navy
Occupation:: Seaman

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