What Ship is That? A Field Guide to Boats and Ships, by Bob Basnight (TPB,1996, $3)
Have you ever wanted to know what that thing was floating out there in the water? Well then, this is the book for you. Imagine a guide to identifying birds, but for ships, and you have the general idea. Bob Basnight, who also does the illustrations, starts you out slowly. He explains how to identify a ship using sheer line, the shape of the bow and stern, and the position of deckhousing, superstructure, stack, and cargo-handling gear. With every ship he describes he includes a "thumbnail" silhouette. All this reminds me of identification books and posters used in WWII to identify planes and ships. They also contained thumbnail silhouettes. Of course in wartime it was kind of important to identify that thing sailing or flying toward you. A lot of people at Pearl thought those planes on December 7, 1941 were American ones. Oops. As most of us would, they saw what they expected to see, and not what was there.
The one bit of information I could not find in this book was what makes a ship a ship, and a boat a boat. There seems to be some overlap. A boat is supposed to be a vessel small enough to be carried aboard another vessel. It is also a vessel that can be lifted out of the water. That sounds clear enough, except submarines, even the large ones, are called boats, and some other boats are actually ships. Back in the days of yore it was a lot simpler. If the vessel had at least three masts, and they were all square-rigged, then it was a ship.
Even if you are still confused, don't worry. There is no quiz at the end of the book. So go and have some fun! This book will be on the new non-fiction table. (L-tr)
