Comments by "Ben Wilson" (@benwilson6145) on "The Drydock - Episode 075" video.

I find it highly unlikely that anyone would throw coins at the returning Grand Fleet from the Forth Bridge because the only bridge at the time was the Rail Bridge with no pedestrian access, the road bridge with pedestrian access was not opened until the mid 60's. There was for a long time a belief that is was lucky to throw a coin into the Forth as you passed over it in a train for the first time. This lead to people on ships passing under the rail bridge staying inside as you passed underneath the bridge.
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The majority of the High Seas Fleet (the shallower ones) were salvage in the 1930's by a brilliant engineer, Ernest Cox. there is an interesting book about it by Gerald Bowman "The Man who bought a Navy". Very interesting book, my favorite picture is a German destroyer in a drydock sitting on its funnel/accommodation.
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The marked deck line on a battle ship and your post of the Load line for a merchant ship will not be directly related. Samuel Plimsol was the inventor of the Load line, I'm sure he's on Wikipedia. This is to allow sufficient reserve stability in case of damage to ship. A naval ship has no need of this as they do not carry cargo. To try a logical guess it may be the equivalent of Deck Line marking, this is the highest line that that the ship can make water tight (not weather tight). In a merchant ship this is the line that the freeboard is measured from.
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The British Minister of Shipping at the outbreak on WW2 requisitioned pretty much every Passenger Ship, Cargo Ship and Tanker in the British Empire. The Passenger ships were used as Troop Transports, Armed Merchant Cruisers , and Hospital ships, As the war progressed other ships were chartered from invaded countries like the Netherlands and Norway. There were berths available for some ships but on government approval. There were some Neutral Ships from Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and even Egypt. There is an interesting tale on YouTube of USA Missionaries having difficulty in getting to Africa to carry out Gods work. They eventually got passage on an Egyptian ship the Zamzam, There they joined other civilian including a a Life Magazine photographer. As the sun rose one morning they had bee stalked by the raider Atlantis who immediately opened fire on the ship with at least 70 shells. the ship was on fire and sank. It is heart breaking to hear the words of a four year old thinking he was going to die. The the Neutral American Passengers were transferred the blockade runner Dresden who told them they were going to land them in Brazil, Instead they were sent to France locked in a hold expecting to be sunk at any time.Another Passenger Ship to be attacked by a German Raider was the SS Nankin, it was enroute from Perth to Calcutta. The vessel and crew were captured including and many civilian passengers Men Women and Children. The Civilians were handed over by the Germans to the tender care of the Japanese where they were interred in great hardships.
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@alecblunden8615 The Grand Fleet wrecks were sold by the Royal Navy who wanted there ships removed so they could use the anchorage, and most were removed
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