Editing Ship (section)

== Nomenclature ==
{{Further|Glossary of nautical terms (A–L)|Glossary of nautical terms (M–Z)}}[[File:ship diagram-numbers.svg|thumb|upright=1.42|Main parts of ship. '''1''':&nbsp; [[Funnel (ship)|Funnel]]; '''2''':&nbsp;[[Stern]]; '''3''':&nbsp;[[Propeller]] and [[Rudder]]; '''4''':&nbsp;[[Portside]] (the right side is known as [[starboard]]); '''5''':&nbsp;[[Anchor]]; '''6''':&nbsp;[[Bulbous bow]]; '''7''':&nbsp;[[Bow (ship)|Bow]]; '''8''':&nbsp;[[Deck (ship)|Deck]]; '''9''':&nbsp;[[Superstructure]] ]]

Ships are typically 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.<ref>Cutler 1999, p. 620.</ref> A legal definition of ship from [[India]]n [[case law]] is a vessel that carries goods by sea.<ref name="Encyclo" /> A common notion is that a ship can carry a boat, but not ''vice versa''.<ref name="Goldstein" /> A ship is likely to have a full-time crew assigned.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cutler|first=Thomas J.|date=October 2017|title=Bluejacket's Manual – Of Ships and Boats and ... |url=https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2017/october/bluejackets-manual-ships-and-boats-and|journal=Naval History Magazine|volume=31|issue=5}}</ref> A US Navy rule of thumb is that ships [[Sailing#Heeling|heel]] towards the ''outside'' of a sharp turn, whereas boats heel towards the ''inside''<ref name="Jonsson"/> because of the relative location of the [[center of mass]] versus the [[center of buoyancy]].<ref name="Ridley" /><ref name="Faltinsen" /> American and British 19th century maritime law distinguished "vessels" from other watercraft; ships and boats fall in one legal category, whereas open boats and rafts are not considered vessels.<ref name="Williams">{{Citation |last=Williams |first=Charles Frederic |title=Utmost care to Watercourses |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2TlJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA440 |volume=28 |page=440 |year=1895 |editor-last=Merrill |editor-first=John Houston |series=The American and English Encyclopædia of Law |contribution=Vessel |publisher=Edward Thompson Company |editor2-last=Williams |editor2-first=Charles Frederic |editor3-last=Michie |editor3-first=Thomas Johnson |editor4-last=Garland |editor4-first=David Shephard}}</ref>

Starting around the middle of the 18th century, sailing vessels started to be categorised by their type of [[Rig (sailing)|rig]]. (Previously they were described by their hull type{{snd}}for example [[Pink (ship)|pink]], [[Ship and boat building in Whitby|cat]].) Alongside the other rig types such as [[schooner]] and [[brig]],{{efn|The 1815 [[Lloyd's Register|''Lloyd's Underwriters' Register'']] used 12 different rig types. These were ship, sloop, snow, smack, schooner, schoot, brig, galliot, hoy, dogger, cutter and ketch. Translating these terms into our modern rig names is not necessarily straightforward as some represent something other than the current meaning. The ''Shipowner's Register'' of the same date also included barque, lugger and yacht. The barquentine did not come into use until the middle of the 19th century.<ref name="Macgregor 1984">{{cite book |last1=MacGregor |first1=David R. |title=Merchant sailing ships. 1815–1850: supremacy of sail |date=1984 |publisher=Conway Maritime Press |location=London |isbn=0851772943}}</ref>{{rp|21}}<ref name="Bennet 2005">{{cite book |last1=Bennett |first1=Jenny |title=Sailing rigs: an illustrated guide |date=2005 |publisher=Chatham |location=London |isbn=1861762437 |edition=1. publ}}</ref>{{rp|32}}}} the term "ship" referred to the rig type. In this sense, a ship is a vessel with three or more masts, all of which are [[Square rig|square-rigged]]. For clarity, this may be referred to as a [[full-rigged ship]] or a vessel may be described as "ship-rigged".{{efn|All full-rigged ships have a fore and aft sail on the after-most mast (such as a [[Spanker (sail)|spanker]]). In later ships, square sails were set above this, but early in the period the mizzen may carry just a [[lateen]] fore-and-aft sail. This would still be categorised as "ship-rigged".}} Alongside this rig-specific usage, "ship" continued to have the more general meaning of a large sea-going vessel. Often the meaning can only be determined by the context.<ref name="Reid 2020">{{cite book |last1=Reid |first1=Phillip |title=The merchant ship in the British Atlantic, 1600–1800: continuity and innovation in a key technology |date=2020 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden Boston |isbn=9789004424081}}</ref>{{rp|71–73}}<ref name="Underhill 1955">{{cite book |last1=Underhill |first1=Harold |title=Sailing Ship Rigs and Rigging with authentic plans of famous vessels of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries |date=1955 |publisher=Brown, Son and Ferguson |location=Glasgow |isbn=0851741762}}</ref>{{rp|2}}

Some large vessels are traditionally called ''boats'', notably [[submarine]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chief of Naval Operations |author-link=Chief of Naval Operations |date=March 2001 |title=The Saga of the Submarine: Early Years to the Beginning of Nuclear Power |url=http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/history/subsaga5.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114164154/http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/history/subsaga5.html |archive-date=January 14, 2009 |access-date=2008-10-03 |publisher=United States Navy}}</ref>  Others include [[lake freighter|Great Lakes freighters]], [[riverboat]]s, and [[ferryboat]]s, which may be designed for operation on inland or protected coastal waters.<ref name="Williams" />

In most maritime traditions ships have [[Ship naming and launching|individual names]], and modern ships may belong to a [[ship class]] often named after its first ship.

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.

"Ship" (along with "nation") is an English word that has retained a female [[grammatical gender]] in some usages, which allows it sometimes to be referred to as a "she" without being of female [[Gender|natural gender]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Curzan|first=Anne|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qQ20vvzacXMC&q=ship+as+she|title=Gender Shifts in the History of English|date=2003-04-24|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-43668-7|pages=83–132|language=en}}</ref>