Talk:Ship

fr:Bateau

Hello,

As this article is included as a "core topic", I would suggest using the French article Bateau which is a featured article and covers the subject fairly extensively. While "bateau" usually corresponds to "boat" in English, in French the meaning is more broad and the first part ("Terminology") explains why both ships and boats are covered in the same article.

Regards, 212.139.18.28 14:10, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Structure of the Ship article

(Cross-posted at WT:SHIPS)This article is in pretty bad shape, but gets about 50,000 hits a month. I'm wondering if we could brainstorm a little and come to some consensus on what the structure of the article should be.

Right now, the whole article is about 20,000 characters. About 6,500 of that is in 2 lists. About 10,000 characters is on propulsion, which seems kind of lopsided to me. The current structure is:

• 1 Nomenclature
• 2 Measuring ships
• 3 Propulsion
  • 3.1 Pre-mechanisation
  • 3.2 Reciprocating steam engines
  • 3.3 Steam turbines
    • 3.3.1 LNG carriers
    • 3.3.2 Nuclear-powered steam turbines
  • 3.4 Reciprocating diesel engines
  • 3.5 Gas turbines
• 4 Group terminology
• 5 Some types of ships and boats
• 6 Some historical types of ships and boats
• 7 See also
• 8 External links

The French wikipedia has a FA-quality article Bateau. There's a little twist in that French language doesn't distinguish as clearly between a boat and a ship as English does. Anyway, the article is about 80,000 characters and their structure is, more or less:

   * 1 Terminology
   * 2 History
         o 2.1 Prehistory and Antiquity
         o 2.2 Through the Renaissance
         o 2.3 Specialization and modernization
         o 2.4 Today
   * 3 Architecture
         o 3.1 The hull
         o 3.2 Propulsion systems
         o 3.3 Steering systems
         o 3.4 Holds, compartments, and the superstructure
         o 3.5 Equipment
   * 4 Functioning
         o 4.1 Hydrostatics
         o 4.2 Hydrodynamics
         o 4.3 Structure
   * 5 Life of a ship
         o 5.1 Design
         o 5.2 Construction
         o 5.3 Repair and conversion
         o 5.4 Scrapping
   * 6 Uses and classiication
         o 6.1 Merchant ships
         o 6.2 Military vessels
         o 6.3 Fishing vessles
         o 6.4 Pleasure boats
         o 6.5 Sporting boats
         o 6.6 River boats
         o 6.7 Other
   * 7 Some notable boats
         o 7.1 Wrecks and rescues
         o 7.2 Technical characteristics
         o 7.3 Human exploits and exploration
         o 7.4 Imaginary or historical boats
   * 8 Around boats
         o 8.1 Life at sea
         o 8.2 Symbolism
         o 8.3 Marine archaeology
         o 8.4 Arts & culture
         o 8.5 Poetry of boats
   * 9 Sources
         o 9.1 Références
         o 9.2 Notes
   * 10 See also

So, (a) is anybody else particularly interested in this article, and (b) any thoughts on what the structure should be before we dust off the wreckin' ball?

To perhaps help move things forward, there's a cybertranslation of the whole article at User:Haus/5. Cheers. Haus^Talk 00:02, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Loadlines

The section on loadlines is wrong and misleading. The extra lines refer to drafts the ship can load to for various times of year and voyage zones. Fresh water allowance is only one of the differing conditions. I shall try to find time to correct these statements if no one else does first. Rumiton 09:49, 26 August 2007 (UTC)()

New Types of Ships?

Sea Launch's ocean-going satellite launch ships -- Sea Launch Commander and Ocean Odyssey -- what types of ships are they? Currently at least one of the pages classes them I think erroneously as passenger ships and research ships. Ocean Odyssey actually launches geosynchronous satellites and is entirely unmanned during launches. - Ageekgal 07:59, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Solar Powered Ships

Are there any plans to construct a solar powered ship that runs completely on solar power? Or have they already created such a craft? Zachorious 13:14, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

From my reading, not enough solar energy falls on a ship at sea to drive it through the water. It could only be an auxilliary source of energy. Rumiton (talk) 14:57, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

"She" or "it"

This issue arises in several watercraft-related articles. "She" is often regarded as unencyclopedic, but it is still commonly utilized in ship articles. Does the Ships Wikiproject feature guidelines for writing and MOS? Apparently, "she" and "it" are suitable and can be used interchangeably. Can anyone offer some clarification? CVW (Talk) 23:34, 1 March 2008

Sure. See WP:MILMOS#Pronouns. Maralia (talk) 22:49, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

I think an exception to this rule must be ships that are gender identified by their name, eg Queen Mary. It is absurd to mention this ship and then say "it had three funnels." Similarly King William, which cannot be a she has to be an it. But I could be wrong. Rumiton (talk) 16:21, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

Traditionally all machines are referred to in the feminine gender. Ships, locomotives, windmills etc. etc. Mjroots (talk) 15:05, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Even ships named after men have traditionally been referred to with feminine pronouns. For more information, see Gender-specific pronoun#Ships and countries. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 16:01, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

That's true, but male pronouns are used to refer to ships in some non-English languages, such as Russian. =Axlq 06:00, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

That's likely relevant in the Russian wiki ... but the English wiki should use English conventions. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 18:52, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

By 'English conventions', do you mean English language or English culture? English language is also spoken in many non-English-culture regions around the world and shouldn't Wikipedia be neutral and free from cultural conventions.80.223.19.147 (talk) 16:10, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

The common convention known to me now is that a ship is a "she" when she's a specific ship built in metal ("Look at how she's sailing"), but always "it" when it's a class name or otherwise a group ("It seems to be a destroyer"). Almost always "it" in generic use ("If a small ship is torpedoed, it's likely to sink") as well. CP/M ^comm |Wikipedia Neutrality Project| 17:48, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Correct for the most-part; but you mentioned "ship built in metal" ... it's actually common convention when referring to a specific ship regardless of the material from which it's built (be it metal, wood, synthetic, whatever). --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 18:52, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, I just used "metal" as a figure of speech, of course it doesn't matter. CP/M ^comm |Wikipedia Neutrality Project| 19:13, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

ship or boat

according to the article on the wreck of the edmund fitzgerald any vehicle on a lake is a boat regardless of size. 67.233.246.67 (talk) 05:58, 25 July 2008 (UTC)