merchant navyn.
/ˌməːtʃ(ə)nt ˈneɪvi/, U.S. /ˈˌmərtʃ(ə)nt ˈneɪvi/ Chiefly British.
All of the trading and commercial ships registered in a country (usually excluding fishing vessels), as opposed to those involved in military activity. Often with the. See also mercantile marine n. at mercantile adj. and n. Compounds, merchant marine n.In February 1928 the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) assumed the title of Master of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets, in recognition of the service rendered by these vessels in the First World War (1914–18). He retained this title on ascending to the throne, and it has continued to be held by subsequent British monarchs.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > trading vessel > [noun] > fleet of
mercantile marine1778
merchant navy1808
merchant marine1839
1808 London Star 4 Feb. 1/4 It was not there as it was in England, where, from the immense number of our merchant navy, a press would sweep away, in three or four weeks, seamen sufficient to man a considerable fleet.
1846 Naut. Mag. & Naval Chron. Sept. 486 In the year 1820, the effective of the English merchant navy amounted to 25,374 vessels.
1858 R. Murray (title) Rudimentary treatise on marine engines and steam vessels. Third edition. With practical remarks on the screw and propelling power as used in the Royal and Merchant Navy.
1875 T. Farrer in A. Hurd Merchant Navy (1921) I. 80 The actual increase of our Merchant Navy is a most remarkable fact.
1921 A. Hurd Merchant Navy I. 2 The Prime Minister..described the Merchant Navy as ‘the jugular vein of the nation’.
1965 S. J. Harland (title) The dustless road: a career in the Merchant Navy.
1998 A. Ashworth Once in House on Fire (1999) i. 3 ‘I used to be a sailor,’ he told us. ‘In the merchant navy, like, on the big ships.’
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1808