The U. S. Navy illegally intercepted a British merchant ship the Trent on the high seas and seized two Confederate envoys ; Britain protested vehemently while the U. S. cheered.

The admiral ordered Hood to establish the safest course into the harbour ; the British had no charts of the depth or shape of the bay except a rough sketch map Swiftsure had obtained from a merchant captain, an inaccurate British atlas on Zealous, and a 35-year old French map aboard Goliath.

The wreck involved nine British merchant vessels and their naval escort, the frigate HMS Convert, that ran aground on the reefs off Grand Cayman.

He issued French letters of marque and reprisal to French ships manned by American sailors so they could capture British merchant ships.

While on a trip to England in 1810, Newburyport merchant Francis Cabot Lowell was allowed to tour the British textile factories, but not take notes.

Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755.

The nationalists in the freedom struggle of India dubbed Calcutta University, another pillar of India ’ s education movement, as “ Goldighir Ghulamkhana ”, or the slave house of Goldighi, with reference to the lake adjacent to Calcutta University, and the number of graduates it churned out who were used in British merchant offices as clerks.

Hitler's British guests were a mélange of aristocratic Germanophiles such as Lord Londonderry, professional pacifists such as George Lansbury and Lord Allen, retired politicians, ex-generals, fascists such as Admiral Barry Domvile and Sir Oswald Mosley, journalists such as Lord Lothian and G. Ward Price, academics such as the historian Philip Conwell-Evans, and various businessmen like the newspaper magnate Lord Rothermere and the merchant banker Lord Mount Temple.

* Merchant marine, a collective term for all of the merchant ships, shipping companies, and merchant mariners, usually of a particular country ; also known in British usage as the Merchant Navy

Adam Smith himself, for instance, praised the Navigation Acts as they greatly expanded the British merchant fleet, and played a central role in turning Britain into the naval and economic superpower from the 18th Century onward.

British rhythm and blues developed in the early 1960s, largely as a response to the recordings of American artists, often brought over by African American servicemen stationed in Britain during the Cold War, or merchant seamen visiting ports such as London, Liverpool, Newcastle on Tyne and Belfast.

The primary targets of the U-boat campaigns in both wars were the merchant convoys bringing supplies from Canada, the British Empire and the United States to the islands of Great Britain and ( during World War II ) to the Soviet Union and the Allied Countries in the Mediterranean.

* August 10 – WWII: British armed merchant cruiser is torpedoed off Malin Head, Ireland, by German submarine U-56.

** Arthur Richardson, British merchant and politician ( d. 1936 )

* February 19 – Captain William Smith in British merchant brig Williams sights Williams Point, the northeast extremity of Livingston Island in the South Shetlands, the first land discovered south of latitude 60 ° S.

Although the British Government retained theoretical control via the appointed Governor, the real power in Bermuda remained with the wealthy Bermudian merchant families who dominated the economy, and filled the benches of the House of Assembly and the Privy Council, with the President of the Privy Council being undoubtedly the most Bermudian with the greatest political power.

The British adopted a convoy system, initially voluntary and later compulsory for almost all merchant ships, the moment that World War II was declared.

The rebels also adopted a form of asymmetric sea warfare, by using small, fast vessels to avoid the Royal Navy, and capturing or sinking large numbers of merchant ships ; however the British responded by issuing letters of marque permitting private armed vessels to undertake reciprocal attacks on enemy shipping.

John Paul Jones became notorious in Britain for his expedition from France in the little sloop of war Ranger in April 1778, during which, in addition to his attacks on merchant shipping, he made two landings on British soil.

Spanish and French attacks destroyed New Providence in 1703, creating a stronghold for pirates, and it became a thorn in the side of British merchant trade through the area.

During the American Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress, and some state governments ( on their own initiative ), issued privateering licenses, authorizing " legal piracy ", to merchant captains in an effort to take prizes from the British Navy and Tory ( Loyalist ) privateers.

Privateers proved to be far more successful that their US Navy counterparts, claiming three quarters of the 1600 British merchant ships taken during the war ( although a third of these were recaptured prior to making landfall ).

It was heavily dependent on exports of agricultural products to the British markets, and on its services sector ( especially its large merchant fleet, and the banking sector ), whereas its industry ( whatever remained of it after a century of being confronted by foreign protectionism ) also was dependent on exports.

In a related use, from 1975, British naturalist Sir Peter Scott coined the scientific term " Nessiteras rhombopteryx " ( Greek for " The monster ( or wonder ) of Ness with the diamond shaped fin ") for the apocryphal Loch Ness Monster.

Alfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS ( 8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913 ) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist.

* 1754 – George Crabbe, British poet and naturalist ( d. 1832 )

The ship's captain, Commander John Clements Wickham, named the port after Charles Darwin, the British naturalist who had sailed with them both on the earlier second expedition of the Beagle.

* 1925 – Gerald Durrell, British naturalist ( d. 1995 )

* 1823 – Alfred Russel Wallace, British naturalist and biologist ( d. 1913 )

On the basis of these photographs, British naturalist Peter Scott announced in 1975 that the scientific name of the monster would henceforth be Nessiteras rhombopteryx ( Greek for " The Ness monster with diamond-shaped fin ").

Leakey ) ( 7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972 ) was a British archaeologist and naturalist whose work was important in establishing human evolutionary development in Africa.

In 1869 British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, co-creator of modern Evolutionary theory published his account of Malaysia's wildlife: " The Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-Utan and the Bird of Paradise ".

* February 13 – Sir Joseph Banks, British naturalist and botanist ( d. 1820 )

** David Attenborough, British broadcaster, naturalist and producer

* November 24 – British naturalist Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species, a book which argues that species gradually evolve through natural selection ( it immediately sells out its initial print run ).

* February 12 The British naturalist, Charles Darwin, was born.

** Charles Darwin, British naturalist ( d. 1882 )

* April 19 – Charles Darwin, British naturalist ( b. 1809 )

* January 7 – Gerald Durrell, British naturalist, zookeeper, author, and television presenter ( d. 1995 )

* December 13 – Robert Plot, British naturalist ( d. 1696 )

* January 29 – British naturalist Charles Darwin marries his cousin Emma Wedgwood.

* January 8 – Alfred Russel Wallace, British naturalist and biologist ( d. 1913 )

** Leonard Darwin, son of the British naturalist Charles Darwin ( d. 1943 )

* June 19 – Sir Joseph Banks, British naturalist and botanist ( b. 1743 )

* April 30 – Robert Plot, British naturalist ( b. 1640 )

* Henry Horrocks Slater ( 1851-1934 ), British priest and naturalist

* Richard Gordon Smith ( 1858 – 1918 ), British traveler, sportsman and naturalist

During the mid-19th century Maluku travels of British naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace, Christians in Maluku were called " Orang Sirani " and were thought to have been descended from the Portuguese.