| More than 6,000 ships, warships, merchantmen, landing craft and barges, sailed across the channel in marked lanes cleared by minesweepers. |
| These operations were planned to concentrate on striking warships versus logistical support ships and merchantmen. |
| Off Cowes and Portsmouth these mighty vessels lay at anchor along with attendant merchantmen and store ships. |
| These were flat-bottomed craft with a shallow draft, and were lowered from the davits of larger troop-carrying merchantmen, like lifeboats. |
| For many years this was a dangerous frontier land, where pirates roved and merchantmen ventured at their peril. |
| According to the records of Lloyds, between 1775 and 1781 American privateers captured 2,600 British merchantmen. |
