How to Use merchant ship in a Sentence

merchant ship

noun
  • One way of handling the drone threat would be to arm merchant ships and equip them with sensor suites.
    — David Szondy february 15, New Atlas, 15 Feb. 2026
  • Large merchant ships could come close to shore, unload their cargo and reload quickly.
    — R. Grant Gilmore Iii, The Conversation, 30 June 2026
  • Rome then requested merchant ships in the area to join the rescue efforts.
    — Reuters, NBC News, 13 Mar. 2023
  • And Spencer is still halfway around the world, shoveling coal on a merchant ship.
    — Kimberly Roots, TVLine, 23 Feb. 2025
  • Thousands of merchant ships criss-cross global waters every year to help keep trade alive and well.
    — Paul Ridden, New Atlas, 30 Jan. 2025
  • Or further, the many more miles of cordage needed by non-whaling merchant ships and naval vessels.
    — Literary Hub, 12 Aug. 2025
  • At least four merchant ships, six coast guard ships and a helicopter were searching for survivors amid calm seas.
    — Washington Post, 11 Jan. 2020
  • About 3,500 merchant ships went down in the Atlantic over the course of the war.
    — Bruce Henderson, charlotteobserver, 11 June 2018
  • The survivors floated on inner tubes until a merchant ship found them and took them to the island this week.
    — Peter Aitken, Fox News, 9 Aug. 2023
  • The wooden fishing boats that crisscross the bay now weave around massive merchant ships loaded with iron and steel.
    — Photographs and Text By Dado Galdieri, New York Times, 2 Apr. 2018
  • By the way, the dragon turned out to be a small Nile crocodile, which may have escaped from a merchant ship.
    — Norma Meyer, Oc Register, 27 May 2026
  • He was rescued by a merchant ship more than 2,000 miles southeast of Hawaii.
    — María Verza, The Christian Science Monitor, 19 July 2023
  • The merchant ship Waimarama fell victim to a fate common to most of the civilian vessels.
    — Jonathan W. Jordan, WSJ, 11 June 2021
  • Divers have been attempting to locate the merchant ship since the 1970s.
    — Fox News, 23 June 2020
  • Over the radio, the remarks made by the captain of the suspect merchant ship do not coincide with his course tracked by radar.
    — Jim Wilson, Popular Mechanics, 22 Apr. 2021
  • Hundreds of merchant ships docked within sight of the plazas, the air rang with the sound of church bells and cockfights, and the streets teemed with smugglers.
    — Néstor Martí, Smithsonian, 18 Apr. 2018
  • Later in the day on June 13, a merchant ship supplied the fishing boat with food and supplies.
    — Isabelle Butera, USA TODAY, 21 June 2023
  • Hundreds of merchant ships remain bottled up in the Persian Gulf.
    — Josh Boak, Fortune, 6 May 2026
  • And in the midst of all this, a merchant ship laden with ceramics and luxury goods went down off the coast of Indonesia.
    — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 16 May 2018
  • He was saved by a merchant ship, taken to Thailand as a refugee, then came to Philadelphia.
    — Jeff Gammage, Philly.com, 27 Apr. 2018
  • The city has been trying to rid itself of the rodent, which came to New York on merchant ships, for at least two centuries.
    — Joseph Pisani, WSJ, 31 Mar. 2023
  • Henson was a lifelong explorer, traveling first on merchant ships at the age of 12 to ports around the world.
    — Alex Knapp, Forbes, 21 Feb. 2025
  • That was the first successful hijacking of a merchant ship since 2017.
    — Soham Mitra, Lou Robinson and Patrick Gallagher, CNN, 22 Feb. 2025
  • Franklin was talking to his cousin, Timothy Folger, who was the captain of a merchant ship.
    — Kat Eschner, Smithsonian, 2 May 2017
  • Five merchant ships were involved in the rescue of the Sincerity Ace’s sailors.
    — Costas Paris, WSJ, 2 Jan. 2019
  • But how those military assets figure into getting merchant ships moving through the strait again is not defined.
    — Brad Lendon, CNN Money, 4 May 2026
  • The average size was around 80 men, many more than the usual crew of a merchant ship, which often counted no more than 20.
    — National Geographic, 2 July 2020
  • After the first alert, a Frontex aircraft and two merchant ships spotted the boat sailing north, according to the Greek coast guard.
    — Kate Perez, USA TODAY, 14 June 2023
  • One became a merchant ship navigator in 1918.
    — Ashley MacKin Solomon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Jan. 2026
  • In the end, Rose notes, compared to the success of the naval blockade, the attacks on Union merchant ships amounted to little more than a nuisance.
    — Barbara Spindel, The Christian Science Monitor, 22 Mar. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'merchant ship.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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