Canal Boatwomen on the Oxford Canal 1944-45

摘要

Like all governments before or since, the wartime Ministry of War Transport had no idea how important the canal network could be. Initially they allowed boaters to volunteer, with the inevitable result that when they declared it a 'reserved occupation' the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company had far more boats than they had crews for, and many of the smaller carrying concerns were having difficulty recruiting. In January 1941 the MoWT consulted Daphne March who was operating the Heather Bell on the Worcester & Birmingham Canal and advertising for crew in The Times.