Types of ships

See also: List of types of naval vessels and List of boat types

Ships are difficult to classify, mainly because there are so many criteria to base classification on. One classification is based on propulsion; with ships categorised as a sailing ship, a steamship, or a motorship. Sailing ships are propelled solely by means of sails. Steamships are propelled by steam engines. Motorships use internal combustion engines; they include ships propelled by a combination of sail and internal combustion.
Ships can also be classified by other criteria such as:

• The number of hulls: monohull, catamaran, trimaran.
• The shape, size, and function, giving categories such as dinghy, keelboat, and icebreaker.
• The hull material: steel, aluminum, wood, fiberglass, and plastic.
• The type of propulsion system used, giving human-propelled (e.g., historical triremes), mechanical, and sails.
• The epoch in which the vessel was used, triremes of Ancient Greece, ships of the line of battle in the 18th century.
• The geographic origin of the vessel; many vessels are associated with a particular region, such as the pinnace of Northern Europe, the gondolas of Venice, and the junks of China.
• The manufacturer, series, or class.

Another way to categorize ships and boats is based on their use, as described by Paulet and Presles.^[44] This system includes military ships, commercial vessels, fishing boats, pleasure craft and competitive boats. In this section, ships are classified using the first four of those categories, and adding a section for lake and river boats, and one for vessels which fall outside these categories.