Ships and boats have developed alongside mankind. In major wars, and in day to day life, they have become an integral part of modern commercial and military systems. Fishing boats are used by millions of fishermen throughout the world. Military forces operate highly sophisticated vessels to transport and support forces ashore. Commercial vessels, nearly 35,000 in number, carried 7.4 billion tons of cargo in 2007.UNCTAD 2007, p. x and p. 32.

These vessels were also key in history's great explorations and scientific and technological development. Navigators such as Zheng He spread such inventions as the compass and gunpowder. Ships have been used for such purposes as colonization and the slave trade, and have served scientific, cultural, and humanitarian needs.

As Thor Heyerdahl demonstrated with his tiny boat the Kon-Tiki, it is possible to achieve great things with a simple log raft. From Mesolithic canoes to today's powerful nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, ships tell the history of humankind.

Nomenclature

detail: Glossary of nautical terms Ships can usually be distinguished from boats based on size and the ship's ability to operate independently for extended periods.Cutler 1999, p. 620. A commonly used rule of thumb is that if one vessel can carry another, the larger of the two is a ship.Cutler 1999, p. 611. As dinghies are common on sailing yachts as small as , this rule of thumb is not foolproof. In a more technical and now rare sense, the term ship refers to a sailing ship with at least 3 square-rigged masts and a full bowsprit.

A number of large vessels are traditionally referred to as boats. Submarines are a prime example. Other types of large vessels which are traditionally called boats are the Great Lakes freighter, the riverboat, and the ferryboat.cn: date=October 2008 Though large enough to carry their own boats and heavy cargoes, these vessels are designed for operation on inland or protected coastal waters.

History

See: Maritime history

Prehistory and antiquity

By around 3000 BC, Ancient Egyptians already knew how to assemble planks of wood into a ship hull.Ward, Cheryl. "World's Oldest Planked Boats," in Archaeology (Volume 54, Number 3, May/June 2001). Archaeological Institute of America, 1. They used woven straps to lash the planks together, and reeds or grass stuffed between the planks helped to seal the seams. The Greek historian and geographer Agatharchides had documented ship-faring among the early Egyptians: "During the prosperous period of the Old Kingdom, between the 30th and 25th centuries B. C., the river-routes were kept in order, and Egyptian ships sailed the Red Sea as far as the myrrh-country." Sneferu's ancient cedar wood ship Praise of the Two Lands is the first reference recorded (2613 BCE) to a ship being referred to by name. Anzovin, item # 5393, page 385 Reference to a ship with a name appears in an inscription of 2613 BCE that recounts the shipbuilding achievements of the fourth-dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Sneferu. He was recorded as the builder of a cedarwood vessel called "Praise of the Two Lands."