Make Your Editor Cry: All Vessels are not Ships or Boats
All boats are vessels.
All ships are vessels.
Not all vessels are boats or ships.
Among water going vessels, the distinction between ships and boats is that a ship is a square-rigged craft with at least three masts, and a boat isn’t.
With regard to motorized craft, a ship is a large vessel intended for oceangoing or at least deep-water transport, and a boat is anything else.
How to remember the difference?
Basically, a ship can carry a boat, but a boat cannot carry a ship.
It may be important to know the specifics for the sake of realism. If anyone in your book is a sea going type, ensure that you have done your research so the jargon reads as natural and correct..
Start here:
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/expeditions/on-the-importance-of-names-part-two-whats-the-difference-between-a-boat-and-a-ship/
Gregg Bridgeman is the Editor-in-Chief at Olivia Kimbrell Press. He is husband to best-selling Christian author Hallee Bridgeman and parent to three. He continues to proudly serve in the US Armed Forces and has done so in either an active or reserve capacity for more than twenty years as an airborne and air assault qualified paratrooper, earning a Bronze Star for his service. Most importantly, he was ordained in October of 2001 after surrendering his life to Christ decades earlier.