Ship or boat

[rundent]

I guess this is best addressed to Steamboats. How do we properly refer to these river craft? Ship or boat. Since I am an old Navy man this is important to my ear. Thanks Larry

[pacmom]

I pose a question to an old Navy man. Does a ship carry boatsor does a boat carry boats? According to the old Navy man that is my DH, ships carry boats and planes (he was an aviator). Boats can't carry boats or ships. On our river cruises we've never seen a boat on the boat. It will be interesting to see the answers that appear. Pat

[npphotog]

We were on the River Odyessey last August and our tour director told the group that whenever you talked with the Captain, make sure when you refer to the Odyessey call it a "ship". The Captain did not like it being called "a boat". Willard

[steamboats]

Hi,

 

Very interesting question! I can´t give a definite answer. I´ve heard different explanations. One easy one was: crafts on the rivers are boats, crafts on the ocean are ships. But I assume not everyone will say this is correct.

 

Another explanation especially for the steamboats on the Mississippi river system was the following: a flat bottomed craft like a steamboat on the rivers is called boat, a craft with a keel is a ship.

 

As far as I´ve heard all crafts on the European rivers are called ships (and they do have keels).

 

A third explanation refers to the size of the craft, small = boat, big = ship.

 

See the wikipedia definitions of boat and ship:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship

 

Any other suggestions are welcome!

 

steamboats

[Bill S]

We were on the Viking Sky in April and it had a small crane at the aft end and a small utility boat. I would call it a "ship".

[pacmom]

Bill S,

Thanks--my DH still says they're boats---after 40 years, I've learned to pick my arguments. Believe me, this isn't one! He has posed another question: why is the Panama Canal the width it is? This too from USNavy lore. Who knows this might be on Jeopardy someday! Pat

[steamboats]

Pat,

 

As for the Panama Canal I assume that this was built to serve the needs of the ships in 1914. Why build a lock twice as wide and long as the largest ship cruising the oceans? Maybe you´ll find the answer there (I didn´t read it word by word):

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_canal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamax

 

Ships can be built much bigger now (Post-Panamax ships).

 

steamboats

[holomuku]

We will be on the Uniworld River Royale in late August- the marekting materials, etc refer to it as either "the ship" or "river cruise ship." Also, Uniworld was rated by Travel + Leisure as one of the Worlds Top Ten Small Ship Cruise Lines. My vote is we call it a small river ship!

 

(of course marketing is just that....marketing!). If I were to venture a guess why they prefer the term ship it is to distinguish themselves from the barges that also are on the French rivers. I'm not sure if barges are on other rivers but I do know they are many of the French rivers.

[Livestotravel]

All the literature received on board referred to our "riverboat" as a ship, in fact, in the Welcome Aboard flyer, it was referred to as "our luxury cruise ship, the Ms Poetry.

[pacmom]

Steamboats,

Will try again to post--first one is floating in cyberspace. My DH USNavy retired says that the width of the Panama Canal was determined by the width of the US aircraft carriers at that time. It has served shipping and cruising well. Now that those behemoths are on the sea, it doesn't seem wide enough. A fun or trivia type thread can be a relieve to the more serious ones. Steamboats, thank you for all the wonderful info you have shared. We leave Sunday for our next river cruise on Uniworld's new River Royale. Will post a review on our return. Pat

[rundent]

I don't think there were any aircraft carriers when the canal was built. Perhaps later on when it was widened [if it was].

[pacmom]

According to my brief research, the 1st carrier was the Langley in 1922. Now DH says, maybe it was for battleships. As I've said before, I've learned o pick my battles and now to do my own research. This beats trying to find out the "proper" dress, etc. Pat