Eat Less Bread

1917 gross tonnage of British merchant shipping lost: 3,729,785 tons

Grand total gross tonnage of British merchant shipping lost until Nov. 11, 1918 (end of the war): 7,759,090 tons

 

SS Arcadian

The British merchant vessel, SS Arcadian, which was torpedoed off Marseille in 1917, with the loss of nearly 300 lives

The World War I Document Archive, (14 Nov. 2003)

 

Despite losing nearly thirteen million tons of merchant shipping over the course of the war, the Allies and neutral nations worked hard to replace it during the same period. Note the incredible shipbuilding output of the United States in 1918.

Merchant Vessels Launched during the War Period (100 GRT and Upwards)

Vessels Launched // Gross Register Tonnage (GRT)
Location19141915191619171918
United Kingdom and Dominions 714 // 1,706,000 354 // 664,000 342 // 630,000 366 // 1,229,000 485 // 1,579,000
United States Coast and Lakes 94 // 201,000 84 // 177,000 211 // 504,000 326 // 998,000 929 // 3,033,000
Rest of the World excluding Austria and Germany 389 // 499,000 301 // 351,000 407 // 544,000 395 // 683,000 430 // 786,000

World War I Document Archive (20 Feb. 2004), originally from J.A. Salter, Allied Shipping Control (Oxford: Clarendon, 1921), 361.

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England
ca. 1914-1918
50 X 37 cm