Latvian Mercantile Marine during World War II

The eight ships denied the order, kept flying the Latvian flag and started to carry cargo as a part of the Allied convoys in World War II.

The town of Nags Head, North Carolina, USA, has a street named after Ciltvaira,[3] which was the first Latvian ship sunk by Germans.

Ashore the Latvians were greeted by locals and the press: when a reporter from The News and Courier asked if they are frightened to return to seafaring, they responded: "Hell no!

The US Navy commander of the NAF St. Lucia base, who was responsible for the area where the collision took place, confirmed that a sub was sunk by the ship.

After reporter Aleksandrs Krasņitskijs of Chas, a Latvian Russian-language daily, and the Saturday supplement of the main newspaper of the country Diena raised awareness of the story of the merchant mariners in 2003, a memorial plaque was unveiled the same year at the building of the former Krišjānis Valdemārs Maritime School (at Krišjāņa Valdemāra 1A in Riga, today - headquarters of the Internal Security Bureau of the Ministry of the Interior of Latvia) with representatives of the Riga City Council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs joining them.