Chapter 4 - Formations, Vessels, Aircraft and Vehicles of the Armed Forces
                 
Table 4.6 Militarily useful British-registered passenger and dry cargo merchant vessels by principal
                     categories and sizes at 31 December each year
Militarily useful British-registered merchant vessels are vessels that could be requisitioned in the appropriate circumstances in support of the armed forces. Other types of ship might also be used in certain cases. Foreign-flagged but British-owned ships could also be requisitioned in certain circumstances.
  1997   2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Passenger & dry cargo merchant vessels 221   533 541 550 467 486 497
                 United Kingdom 94   254 259 265 231 257 283
                 Isle of Man and the Channel Islands 51   89 82 80 64 57 51
                 UK Overseas Territories 76   190 200 205 172 172 163
                 
Cruise ship (over 200 berths) 8   25 24 26 28 32 32
                 United Kingdom 8   17 10 10 7 9 9
                 Isle of Man and the Channel Islands -   - - - - - -
                 UK Overseas Territories -   8 14 16 21 23 23
                 
Roll-on roll-off passenger (over 200 berths) 10   5 5 5 8 7 5
                 United Kingdom 10   5 5 5 8 7 5
                 Isle of Man and the Channel Islands -   - - - - - -
                 UK Overseas Territories -   - - - - - -
                 
Roll-on roll-off freight (over 500 lane metres) 37   53 47 48 39 43 37
                 United Kingdom 9   27 29 30 21 24 21
                 Isle of Man and the Channel Islands 15   16 9 10 9 8 7
                 UK Overseas Territories 13   10 9 8 9 11 9
                 
General cargo break bulk (over 1,000 deadweight tons) 72   236 223 216 120 126 118
                 United Kingdom 46   83 72 74 25 32 37
                 Isle of Man and the Channel Islands 15   59 55 57 33 32 31
                 UK Overseas Territories 11   94 96 85 62 62 50
                 
Refrigerated cargo (over 1,000 deadweight tons) 35   62 60 60 47 37 30
                 United Kingdom -   16 17 21 17 13 8
                 Isle of Man and the Channel Islands 3   2 4 4 5 5 3
                 UK Overseas Territories 32   44 39 35 25 19 19
                 
Container (fully cellular, over 100 twenty foot containers) 59   152 182 190 225 241 275
                 United Kingdom 21   106 126 130 153 172 203
                 Isle of Man and the Channel Islands 18   12 14 12 17 12 10
                 UK Overseas Territories 20   34 42 48 55 57 62
Source: Department for Transport
The information in this table is for UK Overseas Territories: Anguilla, British Antarctic Territory, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory, Belize [British], British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands (and Dependencies), Gibraltar, Montserrat, St Helena, Turks and Caicos Islands. This list of countries differs slightly from the list used by the FCO.