During World War I, Norway was a neutral country. In reality, however, Norway had been pressured by the United Kingdom to hand over increasingly large parts of its massive merchant fleet to the UK at low rates, as well as to join the trade blockade against Germany. Norwegian merchant marine ships with Norwegian sailors were then required to sail under the British flag and risk being sunk by German submarines.[50] Thus, many Norwegian sailors and ships were lost.[50] Thereafter, the world ranking of the Norwegian merchant marine fell from fourth place in the world to sixth place in the world.[50]