Merchant ship
A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a
They come in myriad sizes and shapes, from six-metre (20 ft) inflatable dive boats in Hawaii, to 5,000-passenger casino vessels on the Mississippi River, to tugboats plying New York Harbor, to 300-metre (1,000 ft) oil tankers and container ships at major ports, to passenger-carrying submarines in the Caribbean.[1]
Many merchant ships operate under a "
The Greek merchant marine is the largest in the world. Today, the Greek fleet accounts for some 16 per cent of the world's tonnage; this makes it currently the largest single international merchant fleet in the world, albeit not the largest in history.[2]
During wars, merchant ships may be used as auxiliaries to the navies of their respective countries, and are called upon to deliver military personnel and materiel.
History
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Definitions
The term "commercial vessel" is defined by the United States Coast Guard as any vessel (i.e. boat or ship) engaged in commercial trade or that carries passengers for hire.
In English, the term "Merchant Navy" without further clarification is used to refer to the
Name prefixes
Merchant ships' names have a prefix to indicate which kind of vessel they are:[3]
- CS = Cable Ship/Cable layer
- LNG = Gas carrier transporting liquefied natural gas
- LPG = Gas carrier transporting liquefied petroleum gas
- MFV = Motor Fishing Vessel
- MS = Motorship
- MSV = Motor Stand-by Vessel
- MT = Motor Tankeror Motor Tug Boat
- MV = Motor/Merchant Vessel
- MY = Motor Yacht
- NS = Nuclear Ship[4]
- RMS = Royal Mail Ship
- RRS = Royal Research Ship
- RV = Research Vessel
- SS = Steam Ship
- SV = Sailing vessel/Sailing Vessel(although these can be sub coded as type of sailing vessel)
Merchant ship categories
The
Cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usually specially designed for the task, often being equipped with cranes and other mechanisms to load and unload, and come in all sizes.
Bulk carrier
A bulk carrier is a ship used to transport bulk cargo items such as iron ore, bauxite, coal, cement, grain and similar cargo. Bulk carriers can be recognized by large box-like hatches on deck, designed to slide outboard or fold fore-and-aft to enable access for loading or discharging cargo. The dimensions of bulk carriers are often determined by the ports and sea routes that they need to serve, and by the maximum width of the Panama Canal. Most lakes are too small to accommodate bulk carriers, but a large fleet of lake freighters has been plying the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway of North America for over a century.
Container ship
A container ship is a cargo ship that carries its cargo in standardized containers, in a technique called containerization. These ships are a common means of commercial intermodal freight transport
Tanker
A tanker is a
- LPG, and LNG
- chemicals, such as ammonia, chlorine, and styrene monomer
- fresh water
- wine
Different products require different handling and transport, thus special types of tankers have been built, such as chemical tankers, oil tankers, and gas carriers.
Among oil tankers,
Apart from
Coastal trading vessel
Coastal trading vessels are smaller ships that carry any category of cargo along coastal, rather than trans-oceanic, routes. Coasters are shallow-hulled ships used for trade between locations on the same island or continent. Their shallow hulls allow them to sail over reefs and other submerged navigation hazards, whereas ships designed for blue-water trade usually have much deeper hulls for better seakeeping.
Passenger ship
A passenger ship is a ship whose primary function is to carry passengers. The category does not include
See also
- American Bureau of Shipping
- American Waterways Operators
- Armed merchantman
- Boat
- Canal
- Ferry
- Freight transport
- Gas carrier
- Glossary of nautical terms
- Great Lakes Waterway
- Lake freighter
- List of cargo types
- Marine fuel management
- Maritime transport
- Navigability
- Roll trailer
- Saint Lawrence Seaway
- Ship
- Ship prefix
- Train ferry
- Tramp trade
- Watercraft
- Waterway
- Whaleback
References
- ^ "Summary of the Report from the Passenger Vessel Access Advisory Committee". Archived from the original on 14 April 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2012.
- ^ "Review of Maritime Transport 2007, Chapter 2, Structure and ownership of the world fleet, p. 45" (PDF).
- ^ Dasgupta, Soumyajit (4 March 2013). "What are Ship Prefixes for Navy and Merchant Vessels?". Marine Insight. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
- ^ "Ship Prefix --- Glossary". Rich Atlantic International. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
- ^ Hoffmann, Jan; Asariotis, Regina; Benamara, Hassiba; Premti, Anila; Valentine, Vincent; Yousse, Frida (2016), Review of Maritime Transport 2016 (PDF), United Nations, p. 104, (PDF) from the original on 13 October 2023