Talk:Merchant Navy (United Kingdom)/Archive 1

message: This archive was created as per Wikipedia:How to archive a talk page.  With the exception of grouping some comments together and making slight modifications to section headers, I believe it's a faithful representation of the state of the prior talk page. Haus42 13:24, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: This archive

message: "Since there is clearly a good degree of overlap between "Merchant Marine" and "Merchant Navy,""
There is a good deal of overlap but the two terms have distinct meanings. Go to North America and they don't recognise Merchant Navy, in the UK no-one mentions Merchant Marine - at least they didn't when I was in the British Merchant Navy - a while back.
I also have problems with the whole of this page. After fifteen years in the Merchant Navy (and explaining that term every time to US people that was what they called the Merchant Marine)I have never come across Malaysian crews. The explanations of the crews from the Indian sub-continent are 'iffy'and the mixture of nationalities of crews is bizarre.
The description of 'purser' (here and elsewhere) is odd (I was one)and one link to one small shipping line in the Merchant Navy entry seems inadequate. And yes, I should amend it... when I have time.
Cannonmc 14:56, 19 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merging articles? 

message: As nothing new was happening, I have merged the two articles, which meant some rewriting. Now, the subject is dealt with in 2 articles instead of three, that is, US Merchant Marine, and this one, Merchant Navy. Merchant Marine should be eliminated.  Hopes this meets with approval. Would appreciate an admin checking out syntax to clean up what's there now.  JohnClarknew 08:35, 25 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Merged

message: *Hey Pesco, I linked your comment above to more easily find the talk page, note that "marine" is lower case, so there's some confusion to actually find where the discussion is going on.  JohnClarknew 18:04, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Some comments

message: MERGE (MN and Mm) and keep USMM as separate entry. Changed my mind a few times, but now I think that one entry with subsections would be too long, and that Merchant marine should be merged into Merchant Navy under the Merchant Navy heading. And surviving entry should simply be clearly cross-linked with United States Merchant Marine. It is clear that the practice of seafaring is everywhere much the same, but where major differences arise is (a) in war, (b) political history, and (c) references and external links (Unions etc.) will be different. To have one big entry with subsections would become very confusing to the reader. My humble opinion, of course. JohnClarknew 17:57, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I'd support this.  Merge the articles, refactor and globalise terminology and national POV, as a discussion of the concept in general, and then split out sub-articles on any individual merchant navies/marines that have enough information to merit that.  Alai 13:02, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Merge, and USMM kept separate

message: The above sentiments are certainly accurate, but the problem is that unlike the US Merchant Marine, the Merchant Navy is not a definite organisation as such. The Merchant Navy could be said to be the ships on the British shipping registy, but this would not include British seafarers who sail "foreign flag", but who when you ask what they do, "I'm in the Merchant Navy". I am one of these people so this is particularly important to me. I'm going to start work on a series of smaller articles relating to the MN, such as rank structure, life onboard ship and the different departments onboard. I am an Engineer Cadet and less knowledgable about the Catering department for example, so if you know more than me get in touch. []
: Is the US Merchant Marine a definite entity at times other than war?  If not it is analogous to the UK Merchant Navy, or any other nations' Merchant Navy/Merchant Marine, in that it is also centrally administered in times of war. At other times it is just nationally flagged Merchant Shipping. 
:Hakluyt bean 14:56, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Further thoughts 

message: In this article, does Master refer to Master-at-arms? Disambiguation is needed.  --Knulclunk 15:18, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually it is Master Mariner --- Safemariner 01:06, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Master or Captain