Merchantman

A red bar on the flag meant a hostile warship, a white one a merchantman.

However, through the periscope of looked every bit like an armed merchantman and therefore fair game.

Early uses In the 1670s, HMS Kingfisher (1675) was specially designed to counter the attacks of Algerine corsairs or pirates in the Mediterranean by masquerading as a merchantman, hiding her armament behind false bulkheads.

Elizabeth 's gifts arrived in a large 27-gun merchantman ship that Mehmed personally inspected, a clear display of English maritime strength that would prompt him to build up his fleet over the following years of his reign.

Fremont-Barnes, Gregory The Wars of the Barbary States, London: Osprey, 2006 page 14. : July The Tripolitan warship Tripolino takes the American merchantman Catherine and enslaves the crew.

Largely autobiographical, the middle sections of the book are set in Liverpool and describe the young merchantman's wanderings, and his reflections.

On 15 January 1799, Constitution intercepted the English merchantman Spencer, which had been taken prize by the French frigate L'Insurgente a few days prior.

The investors would arm the vessels and recruit large crews, much larger than a merchantman or a naval vessel would carry, in order to crew the prizes they captured.

Tracy (2006), p. 89. On 24 December, Constitution intercepted the merchantman Lord Nelson and placed a prize crew aboard.