Merchant navy

In many countries the fleet's proper name is simply the capitalized version of the common noun ("Merchant Navy").

[12] This is according to the annual maritime shipping statistics provided by the British government and the Department for Transport.

[13] Canada, like several other Commonwealth nations, created its own merchant navy in a large-scale effort in World War II.

The Greek maritime fleet is today engaged in commerce and transportation of goods and services universally.

The birth of the modern Indian Merchant Navy occurred before independence from the United Kingdom, when in 1919 SS Loyalty sailed from India to Britain.

However, the "wartime Merchant Navy was neither a military force nor a single coherent body", instead it was "a diverse collection of private companies and ships".

Over the course of the war, 64 ships were sunk by enemy action on the New Zealand–UK route,[18] and 140 merchant seafarers died (a similar number were also taken prisoner).

In the Indo-Pak war of 1971 Pakistan suffered a great loss, and most of Pakistani vessels were left in Bangladesh, because of having Bengali speaking crew on them.

Switzerland, despite being a landlocked country, has a civilian high seas fleet of merchant vessels, whose home port is Basel, on the Rhine.

The first ships were purchased and operated by the government in order to ensure the supply of critical resources during World War II.

The United States Merchant Marine is made up of the nation's civilian-owner merchant ships and government owned ships (Military Sealift Command, NOAA, Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Homeland Security), and the men and women who crew them.

In time of war, the merchant marine[21] is an auxiliary to the navy and can be called upon to deliver troops and supplies for the military.

Not included in these numbers are the over 700 ships which are owned by American interests but are registered, or flagged, in other countries.