Editing Hull (watercraft) (section)

==General features==
[[File:Ship's hull visible.jpg|thumb|Ship above the water with the entire hull visible]]
There is a wide variety of hull types that are chosen for suitability for different usages, the hull shape being dependent upon the needs of the design. Shapes range from a nearly perfect box, in the case of scow barges, to a needle-sharp surface of revolution in the case of a racing multihull sailboat. The shape is chosen to strike a balance between cost, hydrostatic considerations (accommodation, load carrying, and stability), hydrodynamics (speed, power requirements, and motion and behavior in a seaway) and special considerations for the ship's role, such as the rounded bow of an [[icebreaker]] or the flat bottom of a [[landing craft]].

In a typical modern steel ship, the hull will have watertight decks, and major transverse members called [[Bulkhead (partition)|bulkheads]]. There may also be intermediate members such as [[girders]], [[wikt:stringer|stringers]] and [[I-beam|webs]], and minor members called ordinary transverse frames, frames, or longitudinals, depending on the [[structural arrangement]]. The uppermost continuous deck may be called the "upper deck", "weather deck", "spar deck", "[[main deck]]", or simply "deck". The particular name given depends on the context—the type of ship or boat, the arrangement, or even where it sails.

In a typical wooden sailboat, the hull is constructed of wooden planking, supported by transverse frames (often referred to as ribs) and bulkheads, which are further tied together by longitudinal stringers or ceiling. Often but not always there is a centerline longitudinal member called a [[keel]]. In [[fiberglass]] or composite hulls, the structure may resemble wooden or steel vessels to some extent, or be of a [[Monocoque#Boats and ships|monocoque]] arrangement. In many cases, composite hulls are built by sandwiching thin fiber-reinforced skins over a lightweight but reasonably rigid core of foam, balsa wood, impregnated paper honeycomb, or other material.

Perhaps the earliest proper hulls were built by the [[Ancient Egypt]]ians, who by  [[30th century BC|3000 BC]] knew how to assemble wooden [[plank (wood)|planks]] into a hull.<ref name="AIA">Ward, Cheryl. "World's Oldest Planked Boats," in ''[[Archaeology (magazine)|Archaeology]]'' (Volume 54, Number 3, May/June 2001). [[Archaeological Institute of America]]. [http://www.archaeology.org/0105/abstracts/abydos3.html Archaeology.org]</ref>