Watercraft

Watercraft or marine vessels are water-borne vehicles including

ships, boats, hovercraft and submarines. Watercraft usually have a
propulsive capability (whether by sail, oar, paddle or engine) and
hence are distinct from a simple device that merely floats, such as a
log raft.

Contents
A rowboat or rowing boat is an early example of a
Types watercraft.
Usage
Design
Propulsion
Construction
Registration
Navigation
Weapons
See also
References
External links

Types
Most watercraft would be described as either a ship or a boat. However, there are numerous craft which many people would consider
neither a ship nor a boat, such as:surfboards (when used as a paddle board),underwater robots, seaplanes, and torpedoes.

Although ships are typically larger than boats, the distinction between those two categories is not one of size per se.

Ships are typically large ocean-going vessels; whereasboats are smaller, and typically travel most often on inland or
coastal waters.
A rule of thumb says "a boat can fit on a ship, but a ship can't fit on a boat", and a ship
usually has sufficient size to
carry its own boats, such aslifeboats, dinghies, or runabouts.
Local law and regulation may define the exact size (or the number ofmasts) that distinguishes a ship from a boat.
Traditionally, submarines were called "boats", perhaps reflecting their cramped conditions: small size reduces the
need for power, and thus the need to surfaceor snorkel for a supply of the air that runningmarine diesel engines
requires; whereas, in contrast,nuclear-powered submarines' reactors supply power without consuming air, and such
craft are large, much roomier, and classed as ships in some navies.
A merchant ship is any floating craft that transports cargo for the purpose of earning revenue. In this context, a
passenger ship's "cargo" is its passengers.
The term "watercraft" (unlike such terms as aircraft or spacecraft) is rarely used to describe any individual object: rather the term
serves to unify the category that ranges from jet skis to aircraft carriers. Such a vessel may be used in saltwater and freshwater; for
pleasure, recreation, physical exercise,commerce, transport or military missions.

Usage
Usually the purposes behind watercraft designs and skills are for seafaring education
or leisure activities, fishing and resource extraction, transportation of cargo or
passengers, and for conductingcombat or salvage operations. In general, the purpose
of a water vehicle identifies its utility with amaritime industry sub-sector.

Design
The design from which a water vehicle is created usually seeks to achieve a balance
between internal capacity (tonnage), speed and seaworthiness. Tonnage is Racing scene of a personal water
craft
predominantly a consideration in transport operations, speed is important for
warships, and safety is a primary consideration for less experienced or often smaller
and less stable training and leisure vehicles. This is due to the great level of regulatory compliance required by the larger watercraft,
which ensures very infrequent instances of foundering at sea through application of extensive computer modeling and ship model
basin testing before shipyard construction begins.

Propulsion
Historically, water vehicles have been propelled by people with poles, paddles, or oars, through manipulation of sails that propel by
wind pressure and/or lift, and a variety of engineered machinery that create subsurface thrust through the process of internal
combustion or electricity. The technological history of watercraft in European history can be divided by reference to marine
propulsion as simple paddle craft, oared galleys from the 8th century BCE until the 15th century, lateen sail during the Age of
Discovery from the early 15th century and into the early 17th century, full rigged ships of the Age of Sail from the 16th to the mid
19th century,[1] the Age of Steam reciprocating marine steam engine roughly between 1770 and 1914, the steam turbine, later gas
turbine, and internal combustion engines using diesel fuel, petrol and LNG as fuels from the turn of the 20th century, which have
been supplemented to a degree by nuclear marine propulsion since the 1950s in some naval watercraft. Current technological
development seeks to identify cheaper, renewable and less polluting sources of propulsion for wate
rcraft of all shapes and sizes.

Construction
Secondary applications of technology in watercraft have been those of used
structural materials, navigation aids; and in the case of warships, weapon systems.
The purpose of usage and the physical environment define the materials used in
construction which had historically included grasses, leather, timbers, metals
combined with timber or without,silicate and plastic derivatives, and others.

Registration
Watercraft registration is the registration of a watercraft with a government RNLI Severn class lifeboat in Poole
authority. In the United States, it consists of an alphanumeric string called a vessel Harbour, Dorset, England. This is the
registration number that is issuedby the state's Department of Motor Vehicles.[2] largest class of UK lifeboat at
17 metres long.

Navigation
Navigation aids have varied over time: from astronomical observation, to mechanical mechanisms, and more recently analogue and
digital computer devices that now rely onGPS systems.

Weapons
Naval weapon systems have closely followed the development in land weapons, developing from:

aircraft carriers
 breech-loading rifled guns
direct enemy hull ramming to use of basic mechanical projectiles
firing shells
missiles and remotely piloted devices
naval mine layers and minesweeper
smooth-bore cannonball firing guns
torpedo-armed submarines A vessel registration number (located
warships armed with fire control directed weapons near the top) on a Yamaha SuperJet
Until development of steam propulsion was coupled with rapid-firing breech-loading
guns, naval combat was often concluded by a boarding combat between the
opposing crews. Since the early 20th century, there has been a substantial development in technologies which allow force projection
from a naval task force to a land objective using marine infantry
.

See also
Watercraft portal
Canal
Glossary of nautical terms
IMO numbers
Lake freighter
Maritime history
Merchant vessel
Navigability
Unmanned surface vehicle
Ship registration
Ship transport
Waterway

References
1. "The Age of Sail" (http://www.hms-trincomalee.co.uk/history/the-age-of-sail). HMS Trincomalee. Retrieved 12 April
2016.
2. "Vessel Boat Registration and Information"(http://www.dmv.ca.gov/boatsinfo/boatreg.htm). State of California.

External links
The Canadian Museum of Civilization - Native W
atercraft in Canada
A History of Recreational Small Watercraft
Recreational Watercraft

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atercraft&oldid=885295053"

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