Merchant Marine is a strategic board game of free-for-all cargo recovery and competitive naval maneuvering. Players race to collect goods from a sinking vessel and return them to the appropriate port, but must stay out of range of their rivals' hungry cannons in the process. Recovered goods can be returned to any port for a small number of points, or they can be taken to that good's matching port for a large number of points. You can stockpile as many goods as you want before returning to port, but taking on too many goods will reduce your vessel's speed. Players must be realistic about the port they can reach before their rivals are upon them. The ships in Merchant Marine act like large ships should -- they are hard to stop and cannot turn on a dime. Players must wrestle with these limitations even while exploiting the same weaknesses in their rivals. Run down another player to steal their precious cargo for yourself, or raise your sails in a desperate bid to outrun a more encumbered vessel. The player with the most points when the final load of goods has been recovered from the sinking ship is the winner.