Word: merchantmen
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...antique. Coxere (pronounced Coxery) was a cut above the average 17th Century Jack Tar (e.g., he spoke four languages fluently). Like most of his contemporaries, he wrote phonetically-"yeuneuerseti" for university, "yeumer" (humor), "bin" (been), "westinges" (West Indies). Born in Kent, in 1633, he became coxswain and gunner aboard merchantmen whose loads ranged from Newfoundland cod to indigo, currants and muscadine wine. Between voyages: "[I] took large liberty in drinking and sporting as the manner of seamen generally...
Since 1713, when British merchantmen began putting in at the River Plate, the British have had the inside track in Argentina. Britain is traditionally Argentina's best customer, and one of her chief suppliers. The railways are British-owned and operated, 5 o'clock tea at Harrods is British, futbol is British. When an Argentine pledges his honor he gives the palabra de ingles, "the word of an Englishman...
...United Nations shipping pool, greatest transportation enterprise in history, was breaking up. Seventeen seafaring nations, whose merchantmen had carried the war-winning cargoes, gathered this week in London to plan the demise of the United Maritime Authority (due to expire March 2) and decide what part of the common effort for war should be turned to the common tasks of reconstruction...
Seraglio in the Harbor. Contemptuous of the Consul's two-bit nation, Tripoli's Pasha cared little whether the U.S. fulfilled his increasing demands or not. Yankee merchantmen made good prizes, filling his coffers and slave pens as full as tribute would. Eventually, in a petulant burst of impatience, he declared war by chopping down the flagpole at the consulate...
...miracle, which began so far back, showed most spectacularly on the transatlantic shore. British merchantmen and U.S. landing craft performed it in cross-Channel transportation. British ingenuity performed it by entirely new (and still secret) means of making open beaches almost as useful as ports. U.S. Navy specialists performed it in building up Cherbourg's shattered port to a capacity far greater than in peacetime. Army engineers performed it on the beaches and close behind the battle line. Loaders, repair men, railroad men, truck drivers, oil men, flyers stretched that far-flung performance farther & farther as the front advanced...