Krigsseilere i fred: De som ble glemt og det som ble husket

During the Second World War, the merchant fleet and its seafarers represented Norway’s most significant contribution to the Allied war effort. However, lack of recognition has in many ways defined the post-war era of the “war sailors”, as the wartime seafarers are called in Scandinavia. Publicity is a part of recognition, and this article studies in what degree the “war sailors” have received publicity from 1945 to 2019. Using search results from a database of digitized Norwegian newspapers, some clear patterns emerge. The war efforts of the merchant seafarers were not forgotten immediately after the war, but they were not in the limelight. Not long after, the “war sailors” disappeared from the newspaper columns. In connection with the three milestones in the battle of “the secret fund of Nortraship”, they received a short-term increase of publicity. The last decade’s increased publicity seems to be more long-lasting, and it has become honourable to be called a “war sailor”. Gradually, several groups of seafarers have been included in the term and are now remembered as “war sailors”. This is partly a result of the need for visibility and recognition for forgotten groups of wartime seafarers.