Noun
merchant fleet (plural merchant fleets)
a fleet of merchant ships, calculated either on a country-by-country basis, or on a global basis.
the Norwegian merchant fleet
The British merchant fleet was made up of vessels from the many and varied private shipping lines, examples being the tankers of the British Tanker Company and the freighters of Ellerman and Silver Lines. Source: Internet
United States In addition to its existing merchant fleet, United States shipyards built 2,710 Liberty ships totalling 38.5 million tons, vastly exceeding the 14 million tons of shipping the German U-boats were able to sink during the war. Source: Internet
In reality, however, Norway had been pressured by the British to hand over increasingly large parts of its large merchant fleet to the British at low rates, as well as to join the trade blockade against Germany. Source: Internet
Merchant marine For long periods of the last millennium Britain had the largest merchant fleet in the world, but it has slipped down the rankings as the use of Flags of convenience has grown. Source: Internet
The merchant fleet entered into a period of diversification that would eventually result in the creation of three entities: * Mitsubishi Bank (now a part of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group ) was founded in 1919. Source: Internet
War would have meant higher taxes, another invasion of Canada, and full-scale worldwide attacks on the British merchant fleet. Source: Internet