Watercraft of some form or another seems to have existed for around the last 50,000 years, with the first rafts coming from settlers in Australia. But since then they have evolved enormously, from canoes to rowboats, to war and cruiseships. With them has evolved the terminology we use, but how much do we actually understand what we’re saying? What is the difference between a ship, and a boat?

The etymology of the two words can give us some insight. Both come from Old English, where boat or “bat”, may have meant something like “to split”, potentially referencing the way a tree trunk is split to carve out a boat. Ship, however, comes from “scip”, which specifically refers to a larger ship for navigation.

So it’s sorted: a ship is larger than a boat. Problem solved! Except it’s not that simple.

Because a boat can navigate through rivers and inland water, whereas a ship cannot, and a ship technically is a boat, because boat is a generic term?

There’s a saying amongst sailors that can help work this out:

You can put a boat onto a ship, but you can’t put a ship onto a boat.

What this means in practice is that a ship is too large to be put onto any other ship. Hence why a cruiseship would have many lifeboats, but not the other way around.

Other definitions appearing through history include a ship having 3 masts, multiple propellers, or large engines. People have constantly tried to tie down the distinction between boat and ship. For example:

Mr. Barnes then proceeded to state the distinction between a boat and a ship, and contended that all vessels above a certain tonnage, and which were registered, came under the denomination of “ships,” inasmuch as boats had no register.

The Essex County Standard (Colchester, Eng.), 29 Oct. 1841

So there we have it: a ship has large engines, masts, or propellers, and can fit a boat in it, but not the other way around. Except when we also get into the subject of yachts, as a yacht can be both a ship or a boat. It entirely depends on the purpose, and who you’re talking to about it.

Sources for this post: dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster, Live Science, Etymonline