Merchant Marine

Moglwi

Monthly Donor
The british merchat marine of WW2 was extremlay large but was made up mostly of old ships 15+ years I belive. what would have haped if as part of great deppresion rescue package the british goverment had encourged through supsides and tax break that the merchant marrine ships be upgraded? Perhaps the RN chips in with lessons learned from WW1.
 
The newer ships would probably have been faster and larger.
Assuming they replaced on around or close to a 1:1 basis, the result would probably have been fewer losses as a percentage (faster convoys suffer fewer attacks), but individual sinkings would be of bigger ships. Probably roughly evening out (the actual result would be possible to calculate, but would require all the relevant data..)
(Unfortunately while the liberty ships are probably a good example of the sort of ships that would have been built, they entered in the second half of the Battle of the Atlantic, so data on their losses would have to be adjusted accordingly)
However faster convoys effectively increases the amount of good that can be shipped. Overall, it would mean a lessening of the shipping problems for the allies.
 

Moglwi

Monthly Donor
Perhaps they would have upgraded the ship yards and moved to better more efficent engines perhaps desal?
 
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