X-Nico

unusual facts about Merchant shipping



Jeremiah W. Farnham

Jeremiah W. Farnham (born in Camden, Maine; died February 20, 1905, Seattle, Washington) was an American merchant sailor and sea captain.

Joseph Hoult

On 8 March 1915, as the German U-boat Campaign moved into a phase of unrestricted attacks on the merchant shipping of Britain and her allies, The Times newspaper published a letter from Hoult commending one of his sea captains who had vowed that he would try to ram and sink any U-boats he encountered.


see also

Charlton Street Gang

Under the leadership of Sadie the Goat, the gang stole a sloop in 1869 and soon began raiding merchant shipping and raiding homes along the Hudson River from the Harlem River as far as Poughkeepsie and Albany, New York.

Command of the sea

A more modern countermeasure, similar to privateering, was the use of submarine warfare by Germany during World War I and World War II to attack allied merchant shipping primarily in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and Baltic Sea.

Irish Convention

The escalation of war losses suffered by Irish Divisions during the Battle of the Somme in July and the devastating German U-boat sinking of British merchant shipping, distracted all sides from striving further towards a settlement.

Limpet mine

An example of the use of limpet mines by British special forces was in Operation Frankton which had the objective of disabling and sinking merchant shipping moored at Bordeaux, France in 1942.

Merchant Shipping Act 1988

The Merchant Shipping Act 1988 c.12 is an Act of Parliament passed by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher.

No. 521 Squadron RAF

The operations of the original Flights and later the Squadron was taking meteorological information for weather forecasting – previously provided by merchant shipping to the Met Office.

Wave-class oiler

Thirteen of the 20 of the ships were initially built for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT), which assigned them to be operated by various merchant shipping lines.