What’s the Difference Between a Boat and a Ship? The Supreme
Court ruled last week in the case of Fane Lozman vs the City of
Riviera Beach, Florida. They decided that Lozman’s 60-foot, two-
story, motorless, rudderless floating home was not a boat or a
vessel, and hence should not have been seized under maritime law
and destroyed by the city. With the line between house and boat
a little bit clearer, reader Steve asked us to clarify something
else: “What defines a boat, versus a ship?” One of the quickest
ways to reveal yourself as a landlubber is to refer to a ship as
a boat, but there’s no absolute distinction between the two, and
even experienced mariners rely on local custom and usage to
differentiate them. Back in the Age of Sail, a ship was pretty
well defined as a vessel with three or more square rigged masts.
As different methods of power generation replaced wind and sail,
the ships of old became more specifically known as “sailing
ships,” and the usage of ship broadened to cover a wide, ill-
defined va