Why can’t I call my Cruiseship a boat?

A lot of people in the maritime world will react quite strange, even angrily if you refer to a ship as a boat. This actually happened to me the first time I was on a cruise ship and talking to one of the officers, woops, he wasn’t happy with me!

The situation isn’t helped by the fact that there is no set definition of the difference. So how can you tell the one from the other?

Well, the general rule of thumb is that a boat can fit into a ship, but a ship can’t fit into a boat. So in theory a ship is a large ocean going vessel whilst a boat will be much smaller.
It was easier to tell in by gone days as when sail ships were the norm anything with three or more ‘rigged’ masts were considered ships although this definition has fallen out of use in the modern world. Accounting for some regional differences the modern definition tends to be ‘a ship is any vessel with a displacement value of more than 500 tonnes’.
A list of vessels that could normally be classed as ships would include cruise ships, container ships, aircraft carriers, destroyers, tall ships and frigates, all vessels capable of long ocean going voyages requiring a large crew to run them.
A list of vessels that could be called boats would include rowboats, canoes, kayaks, catamarans and tugboats. All vessels capable of being operated by a small crew or an individual, another good way of telling the difference between the two.
However, confusing the issue are submarines, which are always classed as boats, even though most modern subs require large crews. This is because the early subs could all be hoisted up on to the side of ships for ease of deployment.
In summary if it’s really, really big call it a ship, if it’s not, your probably safe calling it a boat, although I still sometimes refer to a ship as a boat even now. Oh well, no more invites to the captains table for me.

Let me know if this has ever confused anyone else.

Strange but true