When I was a kid, I learned that the difference between a ship and a boat is a ship can hold a boat on board but a boat cannot hold a ship on board. Is this basically correct?

That is exactly the way I have heard guys in white uniforms with a lot of stuff on the epaulets explain it to guys in shorts with wing tips and dark knee socks.

It must be correct.

Dab gum it, the imagery you just created tickled the crud out of me. I have, for years, characterized the typical tourist from Kansas (sorry folks) visiting Yosemite with pasty white skin, bermuda shorts, a "happy face"
t-shirt, black socks, deck shoes, and a Disneyland fishing hat with a camera (poloroid) dangling around his neck!

I once said that to one of my college professors who quickly informed me that he and Mrs. Rombold were from Kansas.

A Ship has Boats attached to the side in case it sinks.

A Boat has a flotation device if lucky thrown your way.

I´ll give you the explanation from the Radiance Captain, because he´s always upset, when people name his ship a boat.

A ship has a norwegian captain, a boat has a frustrated husband,

Not my words, but I like the explanation.

Best regards
oppis

A Ship has berths and a destination.

A Boat floats.

quote:

Originally posted by oppis:
I´ll give you the explanation from the Radiance Captain, because he´s always upset, when people name his ship a boat.

A ship has a norwegian captain, a boat has a frustrated husband,

Not my words, but I like the explanation.

Best regards
oppis

I'm not sure what it means but I like it.

Being ex Navy the definition in the original post is what I understand to be correct. But it is not always intuitive. I was on the Thomas Hart a Destroyer Escort that had 138 men and carried ASROC missles. It was classified by the Navy as a BOAT. I suppose you could pick it up and place it on the deck of a Carrier if you wanted.

I'll add to the guy in shorts and black socks and give him flip-up sunglasses and a pocket protector. That completes the image for me.

I'm thinking about the movie, "Das Boot" and wondering if in German a sub can be called a boat.

quote:

I'm thinking about the movie, "Das Boot" and wondering if in German a sub can be called a boat.

Chef Ken,

the German word for "submarine" is "Unterseeboot", which indeed means "Underseas Boat".

On the other hand it's "river boat" in English but "Flußschiff" ("river ship") in German.

I have never heard somebody using the term "Boot" ("boat") for a cruise ship in German.

We forgot the zinc oxide on the nose....

and shorts that come up so high, he has to open his fly to scratch his hairless chest.

I know we are on task with this thread.

You can rock a boat, not a ship

Tell that to someone rounding the Cape or crossing Bass Strait.

But they are not rocking the ship. Good old mother nature is

Point well taken!

Pet peeve alert!

Yes, it's a ship.

(Despite the horrid name of the 1970s TV series, "The Love Boat.")