Britain has lost its place among the...

Britain has lost its place among the world’s largest merchant fleets, according Lloyd’s Register of Shipping. New figures show Britain registered a fleet of 8.5 million gross tonnage at the end of June, 1987. Substantial reductions were also recorded in Greece, Norway, Japan and Germany. After ranking eighth last year, Britain is now 11th, over taken by the fleets of Cyprus with 15.7 million tons, the Bahamas with 9.1 million tons and the Philippines with 8.7 million tons. The world fleet in general also showed a decrease and now stands at 403.5 million tons. Fleets showing significant increases included Gibraltar and Iran.