excuse my ignorance but.....

When it sinks it's first DINGY!

I was always told while in the Navy that a boat could be hoisted aboard a ship (as someone else already stated). But, that being said, we called them whatever we wanted. Generally we'd call our ships boats when within earshot of the officers so that they'd get upset about it and correct us.

It's one of those things where there is probably a definite technical definition of what should be called what; but the people who actually work with them don't pay them much mind.

-Devin

Submarines even the Ohio Boats will always be know as Boats.. It's more of a tradition than anything else even though they are USS ( United States Ship) designated. As a former Submariner ( Sub-marine-er) not ( Sub-mariner) I will always say " I rode the Boats" ..
The Navy Lore about what a Boat is was that any vessel that can be hoisted aboard a ship was a Boat. Hence the term was applied to Submarines because the early Boats were in fact very small.

A petty officer told me once that all Navy vessels are ships. Boats are what you play with in the bath tub. Not saying I agree with that but that is what I was told.

One traditional measure was that a boat was anything that could be hoisted onboard a ship. Submarines were always considered boats for some reason - not sure why.

With today's heavy lift ships, I guess just about anything up to about 550 feet could be considered a boat LOL

Kurt

boats are anything under 100' and submarines.

The Navy considers submarines as ships although they are colloquially known as boats. Subs were originally the same size as a "boat" hence the term. But now? They are way beyond "boats".

Well,

In the age of sail, anything with fewer than three masts was not a ship. On the other hand, two-masted vessels like brigs and brigantines would also have boats stowed on them.

Conversely, there were some fore and aft rigged ...um... nautical floaty things that had three masts, like French xebechs (or chebecs) that were not "ship rigged" with square sails. I'm not sure if they were considered "ships" or not.

Regards,

it depends as a submarine is referred to as a boat & the typhoons are pretty big. it could also be the definition as in if it looks like a boat than it is a boat other than that it is a ship