From War to Peace tells the story of the adaptation from White Ensign
to Red Ensign, and to flags of other nations, of the numerous classes of
naval ships mainly built during the two world wars and surplus to
requirements with the advent of peace. It also describes ships sourced
from the United States Navy and elsewhere that were converted for
commercial use.
The most successful classes to transfer to the merchant service were the
Hunt-class minesweepers of the Great War, Landing Craft, Tank, the
salvage tugs of World War Two, and the wooden-hulled Fairmile launches
which became familiar at seaside resorts in the 1950s and '60s; and, of
course, the MFV classes that helped the fishing industry in the postwar
years. The story includes the successful commercial conversions of many
of the Flower and Castle Class corvettes and River Class frigates,
notably the 1954 conversion of HMCS Stormont to a luxury yacht for the
Greek shipping magnate Onassis. It describes why HMS Charybdis became
a passenger liner in the Great War, and how HMS Albatross nearly
became a luxury liner after World War Two, but in fact was transformed
into a very unpopular emigrant ship and ended her days as a floating
casino based at Cape Town.
The author reveals the military antecedents of numerous commercial
vessels that many would have thought were built especially for the
service that they later maintained, and it illustrates just how many
Royal Navy vessels ended up in private ownership. And the question is
asked: if the military had not built so many ships that were eminently
suitable for commercial adaptation, would the technical development of
merchant shipping have progressed at a faster rate than it did? The
answer is a definite 'no', and is illustrated in several ways. It was
former naval vessels that promoted the early development of the Ro-Ro
ferry; former naval ships introduced numerous design innovations, for
example, the raised foredeck common for so many years on salvage tugs,
and, above all, stripped of their military hardware, ex naval ships
provided opportunities for modest investment where otherwise there would
have been none.
Copiously illustrated throughout, the book tells a fascinating story of
invention and ingenious ship conversion, and of pragmatic adaptation in
the financially stringent years after two world wars.
