Closer inspection revealed it to be an armed merchantman.

Though technically a privateer, she was actually an armed merchantman.

On their approach three large armed merchantmen, commanded to assist the guard ships, lost courage and fled.

One year later it was decided to acquire a further 150 armed merchantmen as a reserve.

Four armed merchantmen won't accomplish much, if only because of sheer scale.

The ship was a heavily armed merchantman flying the British flag, and in an hour or more they had all but closed on one another.

There were only two ships, both armed merchantmen, on the planet.

And they tell me you have at least two armed merchantmen?

"Badly," she supposed was one way to describe what had happened to the armed merchantman.