What is the condition of the Grayson Merchant Marine?

What is the status and condition of the Grayson Merchant Marine fleet. We know there WAS one because one of their merchants (with family aboard including a young daughter taken prisoner by Masadan pirates) features prominently in a story. We don't actually see much more of it but there has to be some.
I am going to guess that the Manticore government would have wanted to notify and warn Grayson about Lacoon I. They are/were an allied system in the war and certainly possible that the SL could attempt to retaliate by seizing GMM ships. It does give them the opportunity to either do something similar or at least warn those GMM ships it can reach of what is coming. Manticore could (and probably would) offer to distribute any official Grayson warning though the networks Manticore has. It is not like this is going to be a secret as soon as MMM start running for home, especially when they drop or refuse cargo at various SL Systems. Think of it as a good faith advance warning. Grayson may not have any mechanism nor earlier need to set up to do something like Lacoon I but should appreciate the heads up and opportunity to at least warn its GMM of what is coming.

Interesting questions.

Besides the ship captured by Masadans, the only other mention is by Wesley in Echos of Honor(?) that Blackbird was also building frieghters for Manticore using excess building space--so presumably they also built freighters for their own use.

I would think it would be a limited fleet, because they are close to in terms of stellar distance (and tied closely in alliance with) with Manticore, whom I am sure gives them 'most favored star nation' rates, and that plus the nature of commercial competition would tend to limit the size of the Grayson MM.

Still, they undoubtedly have ships out there, and I would think that the SEM would not forget about them when Lacoon I and II kicked in.

But if you're recalling 50-60,000 of your own ships, and Grayson has maybe 200-300 out in Human-space, it's not to surprising that we haven't run across them.

IMHO as always. YMMV.

I believe RFC has said that Grayson has a very, very small merchant marine; they had little (but not quite none) foreign trade pre-Alliance, and since then have been fine with relying on (mostly) Manticoran trade ships (even if they've built some hulls for Manticoran trade firms).

While I am not 100% certain that the Ambassadors at any given planet will warn any GMM ships in the area, I am certain that there will be at least one person with a brain. Whether it is the Trade Rep or just a secretary who has friends in the service, someone will slip them the warning.

That said, I would be surprised if there were more than one or two to be warned. Most of them will be concentrating on runs closer to home, servicing the needs of the smaller members of the original Manticoran Alliance. Grayson is actually on fairly good terms with most of them.