Plunged into depression after a brief, post-war boom, the ships and men of the British merchant navy found themselves called upon to repeat their sacrifice to the menace of German hostility within 20 years of the end of the "war to end all wars." For over three years, until the Royal Navy bettered the German U-Boat, the merchant navy maintained the supply of food, raw materials, and the sinews of war against appalling odds until victory ushered in a new age of peace and prosperity. It was not to last for long. Within a generation the merchant navy had all but vanished, its companies wound up, its men and women cast aside, its loss to the nation yet to be appreciated in one of the quietest yet most fundamental changes to affect this country at the end of the millennium. The final installment in Richard Woodman's ground-breaking five-volume series is as richly illustrated as the previous four and draws to a conclusion this critically acclaimed study into the history and development of the merchant navy.