Boat vs. Ship
F.G. Baker

Someone recently pointed out that in a story I had used both the words boat and ship in a story and said I should make sure I used them correctly. So I did a little online research on the terms.

I ran across an article on the Guardian website where several people had responded to just this question. Here is a summary of the various arguments for the difference which are at least interesting if not realistic!

1. Size matters; A ship is larger than a boat. Many comments like this including some tonnage values for the sizes involved.
2. You can put a boat on a ship, but not a ship on a boat.
3. The British Royal Navy defines a sailing ship with three masts with square rigging a ship and anything smaller as a boat or of a different vessel category.
4. A ship has a through deck above the waterline. Therefore, a submarine which has no through decks because of bulkheads, must always be a boat.
5. A ship has its center of mass above the water line, a boat does not. (I’m not sure this is always true, but it works for small boats like rowboats that have no deck.)
6. Here is an interesting one. A ship tends to lean out of a turn when making a turn, but a boat tends to lean into the turn. This would seem to apply only to powered craft and would make sense if the ship has its center of mass above the waterline. I’m not sure how it applies to boats.
7. Ships have curtains!
8. The Captain of a ship may not like it if you call his ship a boat. But the Captain of a boat will not be upset if you call his boat a ship!
9. When your ship sinks, you get in a lifeboat. If your boat sinks you get in the sea.

Any other ideas out there?