Fleet

Fleet (that which floats), a collection of ships, whether of war or commerce, for one object or for one destination. 'Division' and 'squadron' are portions of a fleet. In the royal navy of Great Britain a fleet is ordinarily the command of an admiral or vice-admiral, and should, strictly speaking, consist of ten ships or more of the first class, with an appropriate number of cruisers, sloops, gun-vessels, torpedo-boats. Great Britain maintains a fleet in the Channel and another in the Mediterranean; whilst the number of her war-ships in the West Indies, India and China, and the Pacific enables these squadrons to assume the dimensions of a fleet by very trifling additions from other quarters.