A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways,
carrying goods or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research
and fishing. Historically, a "ship" was a sailing vessel with at least three square-rigged masts and
a full bowsprit. Ships are generally distinguished from boats, based on size, shape, load
capacity, and tradition.
Ships have been important contributors to human migration and commerce. They have
supported the spread of colonization and the slave trade, but have also served scientific, cultural,
and humanitarian needs. After the 15th century, new crops that had come from and to the
Americas via the European seafarers significantly contributed to the world population growth.
[1]
Ship transport is responsible for the largest portion of world commerce.
As of 2016, there were more than 49,000 merchant ships, totaling almost 1.8 billion dead weight
tons. Of these 28% were oil tankers, 43% were bulk carriers, and 13% were container ships.[2]
Ships are generally larger than boats, but there is no universally accepted distinction between
the two. Ships generally can remain at sea for longer periods of time than boats.[3] A legal
definition of ship from Indian case law is a vessel that carries goods by sea.[4] A common notion is
that a ship can carry a boat, but not vice versa.[5] A US Navy rule of thumb is that ships heel
towards the outside of a sharp turn, whereas boats heel towards the inside[6] because of the
relative location of the center of mass versus the center of buoyancy.[7][8] American and British
19th century maritime law distinguished "vessels" from other craft; ships and boats fall in one
legal category, whereas open boats and rafts are not considered vessels.[9]
In the Age of Sail, a full-rigged ship was a sailing vessel with at least three square-rigged masts
and a full bowsprit; other types of vessel were also defined by their sailplan,
e.g. barque, brigantine, etc.[10]
A number of large vessels are usually referred to as boats. Submarines are a prime example.
[11]
Other types of large vessel which are traditionally called boats are Great Lakes
freighters, riverboats, and ferryboats.[9] Though large enough to carry their own boats and heavy
cargoes, these vessels are designed for operation on inland or protected coastal waters.
In most maritime traditions ships have individual names, and modern ships may belong to a ship
class often named after its first ship.
In the northern parts of Europe and America a ship is traditionally referred to with a
female grammatical gender, represented in English with the pronoun "she", even if named after a
man. This is not universal usage and some English language journalistic style guides advise
using "it" as referring to ships with female pronouns can be seen as offensive and outdated.[citation
needed][12][13]
In many documents the ship name is introduced with a ship prefix being an abbreviation
of the ship class, for example "MS" (motor ship) or "SV" (sailing vessel), making it easier to
distinguish a ship name from other individual names in a text.
