In Ebrington you pass ‘The International Sailor’ statue of a seaman in uniform with his hammock and kit bag.

Sponsored by the local Royal Naval Association branch in 2013, it commemorates Derry’s and the Allied nations’ service in the Battle of the Atlantic, ‘the longest, largest and most complex’ naval battle ever.

Derry’s Sailor matches a 1991 statue by the same sculptor Peter Bustin, almost 3,000 miles away in Halifax, Nova Scotia. That statue, also 8 feet tall, shows a young Canadian sailor also with hammock and kit bag - sponsored by the former Atlantic Chief and Petty Officers’ Association of Canada to honour Canadians who have served in the navy during times of both war and peace.

The two statues stand in joint tribute to the Allied navies who secured the vital, perilous Atlantic shipping convoy routes during World War II.

The International Sailor statues in Derry (left) and Halifax (right).

placeholder image — The International Sailor statues in Derry (left) and Halifax (right).

Halifax was a primary departure point for the North American convoys - Derry was the crucial, most-westerly European base for convoy protection ships.

Appallingly over 100,000 people died during the Battle of the Atlantic: 72,000 Allied naval and merchant seamen (including c3,600 Canadians) and thousands more Allied air force personnel. Over 30,000 German U-boat crew members were killed. An astonishing total of 4,505 ships and submarines were sunk during the conflict.

“Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed”, says the UNESCO Charter.

There is a lot of work for us to do.