THE QUIET HEROES

As someone brought up in a Port town, with a grandfather and uncles who served in the merchant navy, one way and another the Battle of the Atlantic was a silent companion through my childhood years - this would probably apply to anyone of my generation who grew up in any Welsh port. With merchant sailors turned Dockers for relatives, I was aware form a young age, admittedly via understandably watered down stories and tales of the sea (and later of the war at sea), that some of my family members had been involved in something called the "Battle of the Atlantic" and they were some of the ones who made it back home.

The name "Battle of the Atlantic" was itself coined by Winston Churchill (in February 1941) and described the "longest, largest, and most complex" naval battle in history. The campaign began immediately after the European war began, lasted six years with barely a let up and involved thousands of ships. There were more than 100 convoy battles and also perhaps over 1,000 single-ship encounters, in a theatre of war that covered thousands of square miles of ocean. 

Over 30,000 men from the Merchant Navy lost their lives between 1939–1945. More than 2,400 British ships were sunk. The ships were crewed by sailors from all over the then British Empire, with sailors from India and China (25%), and  from the West Indies, Middle East and Africa (5%). The Allies gradually gained the upper hand, overcoming surface raiders (by the end of 1942( and the U-boats (by mid-1943), although losses to U-boats continued to war's end.

This costly fight was a victory for the Allies, without their costly victory with some 3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships being sunk. Without this hard one victory it is quite possible that the liberation of Europe would have been delayed if not postponed and D-day would probably not have happened when it did.

So rightly, yesterday the battle of the Atlantic is being remembered and commemorated on the 70th anniversary of the climax of the battle (May 1943), when the corner was turned.  Further commemorations are to take place in London between 8th  and 13th  May, in Derry between 10th  and 12th  May, and in Liverpool between 24th  and 27th May.

When we finally end up with a maritime museum for the South East preferably in Newport (as part of the National Museum), aside from containing the restored remains of the ‘Newport Ship’ and the Barlands farm Romano-Celtic boat, there should be a gallery that focuses on the Merchant Navy (and it’s place in our history) which includes amongst them being the lifeboat from the Anglo-Saxon. This should be a lasting and permanent dedicated memorial to those quiet heroes and also to those who never came back to tell their tales. 

A LITRE OF THE BLACK STUFF...

Stars: Red = Gas, Green = Oil

Ever since I was a child there has been off and on talk about exploiting the potential oil and gas in the Celtic Sea and the western approaches. Work has been quietly carrying on to explore and exploit the resources in Irish territorial waters for many years. Now what drives oil exploration is commercial viability, Esso first discovered oil of Ireland in the 1970s, but at the time it was perceived not to be a realistic commercial prospect, as oil prices were pretty low at the time. As the oil price has rocketed from around $10 to $15 a barrel to around $125 a barrel and demand has risen this is now longer the case.

The search for the ‘black gold’ off Ireland may now be about to deliver some tangible results. Now an Irish company has found the Irish Republic's first viable oil well. The oil exploration company Providence Resources plc has announced that it has made the discovery some 70km off the Cork coast. The exploratory Barryroe oil well has delivered double the amount of oil needed for future full-scale extraction to make commercial sense.

The exploratory well yield comes in at almost 4,000 barrels of oil a day. Providence Resources Plc incidentally also has drilling permits in Northern Ireland. The company is now seeking international investors to help it exploit the well and the surrounding field, which the firm hopes will contain many further viable wells.

At the moment the bulk of Ireland’s energy comes from imported oil. Oil accounts for over 60% of Ireland’s overall energy consumption, significantly above the EU average. As Ireland’s economy grew, so did their reliance on imported oil. Ireland is also heavily reliant on gas and Ireland’s consumption of gas is increasing rapidly. There is now a major international shift from oil to gas as a source for power generation.

With oil supplies expected to decline in the years to come and growing efforts to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases, many see gas as the primary energy source for the 21st century. In Ireland gas is extensively used for heating and more than 60%of our electricity is also generated by power plants fuelled by natural gas. No wonder there is a degree of excitement in Ireland at this discovery.