The more I asked that question, the more answers I’ve come across. At this point I beleive a ship can conduct sustained operations at sea while a boat cannot. All watchstations corresponding to it’s mission are manned 24 hours a day, and it has significant onboard repairability and damage control / firefighting assets. Carries rescue boats or helicopters and can embark them in some poor weather conditions.
A friend of mine that just graduated with a naval architecture degree said that they told him that a boat will lean into a turn and a ship will lean out of a turn.
According to the “Dictionary of Nautical Words and Terms”…
[B]Ship[/B] - A sea-going vessel. 2. Vessel having a certificate of registry. Technically, a sailing vessel having three or more masts with yards crossed on all of them. In Victorian times, any vessel with yards on three masts was termed a ‘ship’ even if other masts were fore and aft rigged.
[B]Boat [/B]- Small craft not normally suitable for sea passages but useful in sheltered waters and for short passages. Often used with an adjectival noun, lifeboat, ships boat for example.
On the Great Lakes, even it is 1000’, diesel powered, and hauls 58,000 GT of ore, it is a “steamboat”. I can’t even count the number of times I have let my laker mind go when piloting ocean vessels and said, “Well, Captain, we’ll be meeting a couple of boats just west of the bridge.”
They look at me with a curious gaze and start searching for something small when the only thing they readily see are a pair of eastbound lakers each 700’+ long! I did learn early on in my piloting career to NEVER say, “Thanks for the hospitality and cooperation Captain, you have a real nice boat.”
[B]“Boat [/B]- Small craft not normally suitable for sea passages but useful in sheltered waters and for short passages”
I don’t buy that. With the size of some of the ocean-going tugs they’re building nowdays, you’ve definitely got some tug BOATS that are plenty suitable for sea passages.
What we were taught the first day of NA school was that there is no technical distinction. The “I know it when I see it” is probably the best. My pet peeve has always been the, “A boat is carried by a ship” definition. Like the picture of the [I]USS Cole[/I] if it floats, you can design something larger to carry it. The reason that there aren’t heavy lift ships to carry the largest ships was lesson two. There are all sorts of things that can be designed and built but the only reason any of it is done is to make money.
I have to agree with Kzoo Pilot. The laker I’m currently on is 1000’ long and is call a boat. Inland and near coastal could be construed as boats IMHO.
Personally I am sticking with “tonnage thing”…I’ll sure know it when I see “it”…any “boat” out there in front of me that is bigger than what I’m on is a “ship”!
Even when I was still a Naval Officer, we called our ships “The Boat”. Regardless of the size, I think it is a ship, if it is used in commerce. Submariners will argue that only submarines are “Ships” and everything else is a target. The debate can go on and on. On to the next topic…
An awful lot of commerce is carried out by Tow SHIPS, Tug SHIPS, and Fishing SHIPS.
Sillly question this entire boat/ship thing.
Who cares except for people on boats? If you’re on a ship you know what it is and so does everyone else. That being said I remind myself that after many an evening on shore I’ve said, “I’m going back to the boat” when that ‘boat’ was a large tanker or RoRo.
[quote=tengineer;15531]Sillly question this entire boat/ship thing.
Who cares .[/quote]
Nobody does, Its the maritime equivalent of the question “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin”, or maybe not.
If it is practical to piss over the side, its a boat, if not, it is a ship (men only) - if the galley oven can hold a butterball turkey its a ship, if not its a boat.
I use to work with an old diesel submariner who was my cheif engineer at a casino. He always yelled at me for calling hour casino boat a boat. acourding to him a boat can go underwater and a ship can not. That doesnt make sence to me cause well i work on a tow boat now and it wasnt dissignd to go underwater and its called a boat. Not a question just my imput. I think ocean vessels are ships unless its a life boat or skiff or maybe a yaht. river vessels are boats (towboats/pleasure boats)