ABSTRACT
The government determined to requisition ships required for naval and military service, rather than charter them, and a proclamation on 3 August 1914 enforced that decision. The ships were paid for at rates recommended by the Admiralty Transport Arbitration Board, which included leading ship-owners, the so-called Blue Book rates, which were based on freight rates prevailing in the years immediately before 1914, most of them depressed. The cargo ships Segura and Severn, built respectively as War Swift and War Pansy, were handed over by builders in early 1920. They served the Company well: seven of them were still in service at the outbreak of the Second World War and all were lost to enemy action by 1943. Imports from Britain, especially coal, and other European countries were severely affected, resulting in a steep decline in Customs revenues, a vital financial source for government in the absence of income taxation. Imports from Germany, most important peacetime source after Britain ceased entirely.
