Gallery of Ships
A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying goods or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished from boats, based on size, shape, load capacity, and tradition.
A ferry is a ship designed to transport people or vehicles across the water on a regular schedule. Ferries generally cover only short distances in protected areas and are not designed for the open sea. The distinction between a ferry and a steamer is a blurred one, though, especially in the waters around New York City, where the same company might operate a cross-river vehicle and passenger ferries, and cross-bay passenger steamers, all for the same commuter service. Some ferries even carried rail cars.
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There are three basic types of commercial fishing vessels found in the Mid-Atlantic region: trawlers, seiners/gill-netters, and long-liners. A trawler or "dragger" operates by towing its fishing gear across the bottom. Weighted nets take bottom fishes, while cage-like steel dredges take clams and scallops. A seiner uses a floating net to encircle schools of surface-swimming fishes such as herring and tuna. A long-liner sets out miles of buoyed line with baited hooks to catch sharks, tuna, and swordfish. One could also add lobster boats and charter fishing or "head" boats to this list. And of course, dive boats.
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Steamer is an early term for any vessel power by a steam engine rather than sails.
Early steamers were propelled by large paddlewheels. "Side-wheelers", with the paddlewheels on each side, were more seaworthy, and therefore more common in ocean waters, while "stern-wheelers", with a single large paddlewheel at the back, were more common as riverboats. Later, these were replaced by more efficient screw (or propeller) vessels.
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The schooner barge was the final development of the working sailing ship. The design originally evolved in the 1870s on the Great Lakes, where it was found that sailing ships could be more profitably towed from place to place than sailed. No longer subject to the vagaries of the wind, such trips could be made on a scheduled basis, and with reduced labor costs. The idea spread into general use, resulting in the conversion of many sailing ships into barges. Ironically, most of the vessels that were converted to schooner barges were not actually schooners, but square-rigged ships. Square-riggers, with their large and expensive crews of skilled sailors, became uneconomical to operate in the face of ever-improving steam power, while more efficient schooners managed to compete for a few years longer.
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A tugboat is a small sturdy and powerful vessel designed to push or tow other vessels and barges
You will see them in every sizable port; smart, businesslike small ships, low in the water and surging out to a large inbound ship. Tugs represent power for pushing and pulling, an engine with just enough hull for adequate buoyancy. Thick fenders for close-quarters work, pushing a big ship alongside the quay against the wind, hauling her off at the end of a towing wire.
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A lightship is a small vessel with minimal engine power and a stout stable hull, designed to act as an anchored long-term floating lighthouse outside of a harbor. They were generally painted in bright red or orange anti-collision colors. Not that it helped much.
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