A ship is a large vessel that travels the world's oceans and other navigable waterways, carrying

cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing.
Ships are generally distinguished from boats, based on size, shape, load capacity and purpose.
Ships have supported exploration, trade, warfare, migration, colonization, and science. Ship
transport is responsible for the largest portion of world commerce.
The word ship has meant, depending on the era and the context, either just a large vessel or
specifically a ship-rigged sailing ship with three or more masts, each of which is square-rigged.
As of 2016, there were more than 49,000 merchant ships, totaling almost 1.8
billion deadweight tons. Of these 28% were oil tankers, 43% were bulk carriers, and 13%
were container ships.[1]
The earliest historical evidence of boats is found in Egypt during the 4th millennium BCE.[2]
Nomenclature
[edit]
Further information: Glossary of nautical terms (A-L) and Glossary of nautical terms (M-Z)

Main parts of
ship. 1: Funnel; 2: Stern; 3: Propeller and Rudder; 4: Portside (the right side is known
as starboard); 5: Anchor; 6: Bulbous bow; 7: Bow; 8: Deck; 9: 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.[3] A legal definition
of ship from Indian case law is a vessel that carries goods by sea.[4] A common notion is that a
ship can carry a boat, but not vice versa.[5] A ship is likely to have a full-time crew assigned.[6] A
US Navy rule of thumb is that ships heel towards the outside of a sharp turn, whereas boats heel
towards the inside[7] because of the relative location of the center of mass versus the center of
buoyancy.[8][9] 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.[10]
Particularly in the Age of Sail, the word ship might apply generally to a seagoing vessel or
particularly to a full-rigged sailing ship with three or more masts, all square-rigged. Other rigs on
seagoing vessels included brig, barque, and barquentine.[11]: 8 [12]: 2 [13]: 222
Some large vessels are traditionally called boats, notably submarines.[14] Others include Great
Lakes freighters, riverboats, and ferryboats, which may be designed for operation on inland
or protected coastal waters.[10]
In most maritime traditions ships have 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 natural gender.[15]
History
[edit]
Further information: Maritime history and Sailing ship
For most of history, transport by ship – provided there is a feasible route – has generally been
cheaper, safer and faster than making the same journey on land. Only the coming of railways in
the middle of the 19th century and the growth of commercial aviation in the second half of the
20th century have changed this principle. This applied equally to sea crossings, coastal voyages
and use of rivers and lakes.
Examples of the consequences of this include the large grain trade in the Mediterranean during
the classical period. Cities such as Rome were totally reliant on the delivery by sailing and
human powered (oars) ships of the large amounts of grain needed. It has been estimated that it
cost less for a sailing ship of the Roman Empire to carry grain the length of the Mediterranean
than to move the same amount 15 miles by road. Rome consumed about 150,000 tons of
Egyptian grain each year over the first three centuries AD.[16]: 297 [17]: ch. 2 [18]: 147 [a]
Until recently, it was generally the case that a ship represented the most advanced
representation of the technology that any society could achieve.[17]: ch 1
Prehistory and antiquity
[edit]
See also: Ships of ancient Rome
Asian developments
[edit]

Fijian voyaging outrigger boat with a crab claw sail

One of the sailing vessels depicted in Borobudur temple, c. 8th

century AD in Java, Indonesia
The earliest attestations of ships in maritime transport in Mesopotamia are model ships, which
date back to the 4th millennium BC. In archaic texts in Uruk, Sumer, the ideogram for "ship" is
attested, but in the inscriptions of the kings of Lagash, ships were first mentioned in connection
to maritime trade and naval warfare at around 2500–2350 BCE.[citation needed]
Austronesian peoples originated in what is now Taiwan. From here, they took part in
the Austronesian Expansion. Their distinctive maritime technology was integral to this
movement and included catamarans and outriggers. It has been deduced that they had sails
some time before 2000 BCE.[20]: 144 Their crab claw sails enabled them to sail for vast distances
in open ocean. From Taiwan, they rapidly colonized the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia,
then sailed further onwards to Micronesia, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar,
eventually colonizing a territory spanning half the globe.[21][22]
Austronesian sails were made from woven leaves, usually from pandan plants.[23][24] These were
complemented by paddlers, who usually positioned themselves on platforms on
the outriggers in the larger boats.[21][25] Austronesian ships ranged in complexity from
simple dugout canoes with outriggers or lashed together to large edge-pegged plank-built boats
built around a keel made from a dugout canoe. Their designs were unique, evolving from ancient
rafts to the characteristic double-hulled, single-outrigger, and double-outrigger designs of
Austronesian ships.[22][25]
Early Austronesian sailors influenced the development of sailing technologies in Sri
Lanka and Southern India through the Austronesian maritime trade network of the Indian
Ocean, the precursor to the spice trade route and the maritime silk road, which was
established at around 1500 BC.[26] The junk rigs of Chinese ships is also believed to be developed
from tilted sails.[27]: 612–613 [28]
In the 2nd century AD, people from the Indonesian archipelago already made large ships
measuring over 50 m long and standing 4–7 m out of the water. They could carry 600–1000
people and 250–1000 ton cargo. These ships were known as kunlun bo or k'unlun po (崑崙舶,
lit. "ship of the Kunlun people") by the Chinese, and kolandiaphonta by the Greeks. They had 4–
7 masts and were able to sail against the wind due to the usage of tanja sails. These ships may
have reached as far as Ghana.[29]: 41 [30]: 262 [31]: 347 In the 11th century, a new type of ship
called djong or jong was recorded in Java and Bali.[32]: 222, 230, 267 [33]: 82 This type of ship was built
using wooden dowels and treenails, unlike the kunlun bo which used vegetal fibres for
lashings.[34]: 138
In China, miniature models of ships that feature steering oars have been dated to the Warring
States period (c. 475–221 BC).[35] By the Han dynasty, a well kept naval fleet was an integral
part of the military. Sternpost-mounted rudders started to appear on Chinese ship models
starting in the 1st century AD.[35] However, these early Chinese ships were fluvial (riverine), and
were not seaworthy.[36]: 20 [37] The Chinese only acquired sea-going ship technologies in the 10th
century AD Song Dynasty after contact with Southeast Asian k'un-lun po trading ships, leading
to the development of the junks.[28][36]: 20–21
Mediterranean developments
[edit]

Egyptian sailing ship, c. 1422–1411 BC

A Roman ship carved on the face of the "Ship Sarcophagus",

c. 2nd century AD
The earliest historical evidence of boats is found in Egypt during the 4th millennium
BCE [2] The Greek historian and geographer Agatharchides had documented ship-faring
among the early Egyptians: "During the prosperous period of the Old Kingdom, between
the 30th and 25th centuries BC, the river-routes were kept in order, and Egyptian ships sailed
the Red Sea as far as the myrrh-country."[38] Sneferu's ancient cedar wood ship Praise of the
Two Lands is the first reference recorded (2613 BC) to a ship being referred to by name.[39]
The ancient Egyptians were perfectly at ease building sailboats. A remarkable example of
their shipbuilding skills was the Khufu ship, a vessel 143 feet (44 m) in length entombed at the
foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza around 2500 BC and found intact in 1954.
The oldest discovered sea faring hulled boat is the Late Bronze Age Uluburun shipwreck off
the coast of Turkey, dating back to 1300 BC.[40]
By 1200 B.C., the Phoenicians were building large merchant ships. In world maritime history,
declares Richard Woodman, they are recognized as "the first true seafarers, founding the art of
pilotage, cabotage, and navigation" and the architects of "the first true ship, built of planks,
capable of carrying a deadweight cargo and being sailed and steered."[41]
14th through the 18th centuries
[edit]

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Asian developments
[edit]

A Japanese atakebune from the 16th century

At this time, ships were developing in Asia in much the same way as Europe.[according to whom?] Japan
used defensive naval techniques in the Mongol invasions of Japan in 1281. It is likely that the
Mongols of the time took advantage of both European and Asian shipbuilding techniques.[according
to whom?] During the 15th century, China's Ming dynasty assembled one of the largest and most
powerful naval fleets in the world for the diplomatic and power projection voyages of Zheng
He. Elsewhere in Japan in the 15th century, one of the world's first iron-clads, "Tekkōsen" (鉄甲
船), literally meaning "iron ships",[42] was also developed. In Japan, during the Sengoku era from
the 15th century to 17th century, the great struggle for feudal supremacy was fought, in part, by
coastal fleets of several hundred boats, including the atakebune. In Korea, in the early 15th

century during the Joseon era, "Geobukseon"(거북선), was developed.

The empire of Majapahit used large ships called jong, built in northern Java, for transporting
troops overseas.[43]: 115 The jongs were transport ships which could carry 100–2000 tons of cargo
and 50–1000 people, 28.99–88.56 meter in length.[44]: 60–62 The exact number of jong fielded by
Majapahit is unknown, but the largest number of jong deployed in an expedition is about 400
jongs, when Majapahit attacked Pasai, in 1350.[45]
European developments
[edit]

Replica of Magellan's Victoria. Ferdinand Magellan and Juan

Sebastián Elcano led the first expedition that circumnavigated the globe in 1519–1522.
Several civilizations became sea powers. Such examples include the maritime republics
of Genoa and Venice, Hanseatic League, and the Byzantine navy. The Vikings used
their knarrs to explore North America, trade in the Baltic Sea and plunder many of the coastal
regions of Western Europe.
Towards the end of the 14th century, ships like the carrack began to develop towers on the bow
and stern. These towers decreased the vessel's stability, and in the 15th century, the caravel,
designed by the Portuguese, based on the Arabic qarib[citation needed] which could sail closer to
the wind, became more widely used. The towers were gradually replaced by
the forecastle and sterncastle, as in the carrack Santa María of Christopher Columbus. This
increased freeboard allowed another innovation: the freeing port, and the artillery associated
with it.
The carrack was developed in Portugal, the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon, then
the caravel was developed in Portugal and the galleon was developed in Spain. After
Columbus, European exploration rapidly accelerated, and many new trade routes were
established.[46] In 1498, by reaching India, Vasco da Gama proved that access to the Indian
Ocean from the Atlantic was possible. These explorations in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans were
soon followed by France, England and the Netherlands, who explored the Portuguese and
Spanish trade routes into the Pacific Ocean, reaching Australia in 1606 and New Zealand in
1642.[47] After the 15th century, new crops that had come from and to the Americas via the
European seafarers significantly contributed to world population growth.[48]
Specialization and modernization
[edit]

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Painting of the Battle of Trafalgar by Auguste Mayer.[49]

Italian full-rigged ship Amerigo Vespucci in New York Harbor

RMS Titanic departs from Southampton. Her sinking led

to tighter safety regulations.
Parallel to the development of warships, ships in service of marine fishery and trade also
developed in the period between antiquity and the Renaissance.
Maritime trade was driven by the development of shipping companies with significant financial
resources. Canal barges, towed by draft animals on an adjacent towpath, contended with
the railway up to and past the early days of the Industrial Revolution. Flat-bottomed and
flexible scow boats also became widely used for transporting small cargoes. Mercantile trade
went hand-in-hand with exploration, self-financed by the commercial benefits of exploration.
During the first half of the 18th century, the French Navy began to develop a new type of vessel
known as a ship of the line, featuring seventy-four guns. This type of ship became the backbone
of all European fighting fleets. These ships were 56 metres (184 ft) long and their construction
required 2,800 oak trees and 40 kilometres (25 mi) of rope; they carried a crew of about 800
sailors and soldiers.
During the 19th century the Royal Navy enforced a ban on the slave trade, acted to
suppress piracy, and continued to map the world. A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the
19th century. The clipper routes fell into commercial disuse with the introduction of steam
ships with better fuel efficiency, and the opening of the Suez and Panama Canals.
Ship designs stayed fairly unchanged until the late 19th century. The industrial revolution, new
mechanical methods of propulsion, and the ability to construct ships from metal triggered an
explosion in ship design. Factors including the quest for more efficient ships, the end of long
running and wasteful maritime conflicts, and the increased financial capacity of industrial powers
created an avalanche of more specialized boats and ships. Ships built for entirely new functions,
such as firefighting, rescue, and research, also began to appear.
21st century
[edit]

Colombo Express, a 8749 TEU container ship owned and

operated by Hapag-Lloyd of Germany
In 2019, the world's fleet included 51,684 commercial vessels with gross tonnage of more than
1,000 tons, totaling 1.96 billion tons.[50] Such ships carried 11 billion tons of cargo in 2018, a sum
that grew by 2.7% over the previous year.[51] In terms of tonnage, 29% of ships were tankers,
43% are bulk carriers, 13% container ships and 15% were other types.[52]
In 2008, there were 1,240 warships operating in the world, not counting small vessels such
as patrol boats. The United States accounted for 3 million tons worth of these
vessels, Russia 1.35 million tons, the United Kingdom 504,660 tons and China 402,830 tons.
The 20th century saw many naval engagements during the two world wars, the Cold War, and
the rise to power of naval forces of the two blocs. The world's major powers have recently used
their naval power in cases such as the United Kingdom in the Falkland Islands and the United
States in Iraq.
The size of the world's fishing fleet is more difficult to estimate. The largest of these are counted
as commercial vessels, but the smallest are legion. Fishing vessels can be found in most seaside
villages in the world. As of 2004, the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization estimated 4 million fishing vessels were operating worldwide.[53] The same study
estimated that the world's 29 million fishermen[54] caught 85,800,000 tonnes (84,400,000 long
tons; 94,600,000 short tons) of fish and shellfish that year.