the worst shipwreck in the world | #shorts

A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep 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
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
Further information: Maritime history and Sailing ship
Prehistory and antiquity
See also: Ships of ancient Rome
Asian developments

Fijian voyaging outrigger boat with a crab claw sail

One of the sailing trimarans 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.