The Merchant marine reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Merchant marine

The merchant marine or merchant navy is an entity with different meanings in the United States and many other seafaring countries of the world, where it connotes a fleet of schips used for commerce.

These fleets may be divided into several categories.

• Freighters, which today are mainly container ships.
• Coasters, smaller ships which are normally not oceangoing.
• Tankers for the transport of fluids, such as oil, but also gas.
• Cruise ships, which travel to beautiful parts of the world and are in fact floating holiday hotels. The cruise trade developed after the aeroplane took over from ships the transport of passengers all over the world.

See also:
United States Merchant Marine,
navy

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