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Shoes online exhibition

Introduction
Maritime shoes
- Heel fragment from the Royal Yacht Mary wreck
- Diver's lead boots
- Merchant seaman's boots
- Rope soled canvas shoes
Collinson archive
Shoes from the social history collection
Tinne collection
1970s shoes

Merchant seaman's boots

Accession number MMM.2007.6

Side view of old black rubber boots with adjustable fastenings up front and mud around the toes

Merchant Seaman George Quigley wore these durable boots made of Good Year rubber on board HMS Rajputana during World War II.

HMS Rajputana

Passenger ship Rajputana, owned by the P&O Steam Navigation Co Ltd, was requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1939 and converted to an armed merchant cruiser.

She took part in several convoys. However her career ended in tragedy on 13 April 1941 when she was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-108, off Reykjavik, Iceland.

283 survivors, including George Quigley, were rescued but 40 of her crew perished.

Front view of the boots shown above. The rubber looks cracked and dirty.