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From: Shawn Baker <shawnkayak_at_yahoo.com>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] nomenclature
Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2001 14:59:11 -0800 (PST)
Okay Richard, you've piqued my interest:  why?  saltwater?

I thought a 'boat' was what you got into when the 'ship' sinks, and
surely these freighters are large enough to carry lifeboats.

Shawn

Richard Culpeper <culpeper_at_tbaytel.net> wrote:
:A Great Lakes Freighter is a boat, not a ship, despite what the 
:designers might say.

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From: Richard Culpeper <culpeper_at_tbaytel.net>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] nomenclature
Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2001 22:32:23 -0500
Seeing as a boat is what you get into when a ship sinks, then perhaps
you're better off in a boat in the first place, with ships sinking and
all that. 8*)

Rama rama ding ding,
Richard Culpeper

(I don't know the whys and wherefores.  I simply know that when I worked
on one, that is what everyone else called it.)




Shawn Baker wrote:

> Okay Richard, you've piqued my interest:  why?  saltwater?
>
> I thought a 'boat' was what you got into when the 'ship' sinks, and
> surely these freighters are large enough to carry lifeboats.
>
> Shawn
>
> Richard Culpeper <culpeper_at_tbaytel.net> wrote:
> :A Great Lakes Freighter is a boat, not a ship, despite what the
> :designers might say.
>
> Send your FREE holiday greetings online!
> http://greetings.yahoo.com

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From: Michael Daly <michaeldaly_at_rogers.com>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] nomenclature
Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2001 12:49:54 -0500
From: "Richard Culpeper" <culpeper_at_tbaytel.net>

> (I don't know the whys and wherefores.  I simply know that when I worked
> on one, that is what everyone else called it.)

When I asked a naval architect about this years ago, he said:
"A ship is a large boat and a boat is a small ship."

When I look into two books on hand, I find the definitions
of "boat" and "ship" almost as vague as the above.  Ship
is considered to be a decked vessel with three masts, square
rigged, with bowsprit, topmasts and topgallant masts.  I 
guess that makes the carrier USS Enterprise a boat!

Bradford's "The Mariner's Dictionary" says that only small 
submarines are boats while the Oxford Companion to Ships 
and the Sea states that all subs are boats.  The latter
defines ships as "sea-going vessels", but declines to 
offer a definition of "sea" nor an opinion as to whether
the Great Lakes are an inland sea.  The former dictionary
suggests that boats are small and undecked - hence a laker
is a ship.

When in doubt, say vessel and be done with it!

Mike



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From: Michael Daly <michaeldaly_at_rogers.com>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] nomenclature
Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2001 13:39:29 -0500
From: "D.Mac" <dmac49_at_idsi.net>

> So I guess my Kayak is a ship ?
> 

Oops!  I left out the part about the exceptions for certain 
small decked boats, particularly those moved by oars, paddles 
and such.  As Mike E. stated, a gig is a ship; a launch or 
jolly boat, on the other hand, is not. Go figger.

Like I said, a kayak is a fine vessel!

Given that our marine vocabulary has been sufficiently polluted 
by Dutch (yacht, keel, even keelhaul), German, French, Spanish, 
Italian, and older Latin, Greek, Arabic etc, it's no wonder we 
get confused!  British, Canadian, Australian and US terms 
differ as well - all nominally English.  

Mike

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