3 ms·

For an Island that has been dependent importing most goods for hundreds of years... I don't even think there's much of a merchant marine fleet left in the UK.

• arlcode 1y ago
  Interesting question. Its plausible that there are not many vessels that are UK flagged anymore. The more interesting question is how many of these are under "control"/influence of domestic operators If required, a flag can be exchanged in a pinch and tax codes /regulations can be adapted to allow/encourage this.
  • noir_lord 1y ago
    Happened during the Falklands War. There are peacetime rules and war time rules, war time rules are best summarised as “government does what it wants and justifies it after the fact”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War_order_of_battle:_British_naval_forces https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War_order_of_battle:... under “Ships taken from trade”.
    • realityking 1y ago
      I just clicked through to some of the listed ships and it appears they were all flying a British flag in 1982 before being requisitioned. It’s not at all clear to me a government would have that power about a foreign flagged vessel, even if the shipping line owning it might be British.
      • RobotToaster 1y ago
        Maybe not legally, but most of the countries used as a flag of convenience are tiny, what could the Marshall islands do about it?
• dukeyukey 1y ago
  It's about a thousand ships, but realsitically it's very fuzzy, with flags of convenaince and all. And British companies own a _lot_ of ships, just flagged under other countries.