Exhibit opens to honour WWI dangers for N.L.'s merchant sailors

When people from Newfoundland and Labrador think about the First World War, they usually think of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and Beaumont-Hamel.

However, an exhibit that opened Thursday at the Railway Coastal Museum in St. John's will honour the threats faced by merchant sailors who risked their lives to keep the fish industry alive during the war.

Capt. Joe Primm was one of a group of Second World War veterans at the opening of the exhibit. It was his idea to honour the merchant sailors in the first place.

"Looking back, these are all our people — Newfoundland people — and they never got the recognition," said Primm.

"The economy depended on them during the First World War and they brought our, the only export we had was fish, and they brought that to Europe."

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It was a dangerous time for the merchant sailors headed overseas, and not just because of the weather on the rough Atlantic — the German U-boats were a significant threat to the boats.

Keith Taylor's grandfather Charles Moore was a sailor on the Maid of Harlech when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat.

"He was captain of the Maid of Harlech at the time when it was torpedoed in the Mediterranean," said Taylor.

"He did see the U-boat, or what turned out to be a U-boat, on the horizon and eventually his ship or sailboat schooner, the Maid of Harlech, was torpedoed and he actually was taken on board the sub when he surfaced and was interviewed by a German captain."

According to Taylor, he'd heard the story from his grandfather for years, but he didn't realize until fairly recently just how extraordinary the story is.

"You don't think these things are very important, but having read the article in the paper with the picture of some of the vessels that sailed the Atlantic at the time," he said.

"It was only then that I realized how important some of these things are, actually, as part of our history."

In his own words

Hear the incredible archival interview with Charles Moore below, as he recounts his experience being torpedoed by a German U-boat while in the merchant marines during the First World War.