A Merchant Navy Reserve is a reserve force of Merchant Navy officers and ratings committed under contract to their Flag Nation for call up in potential/ time of war to serve aboard Merchant vessels for their country. These merchant vessels could be used in STUFT mode as in chartered 'ships taken up from trade' to assist in the supply of naval, army and of air forces in theatres of conflict or in convoys in the supply of their homeland. The United Kingdom MNR was formed in 1941 during the Second World War and was disbanded in 2000. Some Reservists later joined the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR formally the RNVR)