This article is about the small vessel. For larger boats, see Ship. For other uses, see Boat (disambiguation).

A recreational motorboat with an outboard motorA boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size or capacity, its shape, or its ability to carry boats.

Small boats are typically used on inland waterways such as rivers and lakes, or in protected coastal areas. However, some boats (such as whaleboats) were intended for offshore use. In modern naval terms, a boat is a vessel small enough to be carried aboard a ship.[1]

Submarines are referred to as boats rather than ships regardless of their size.[2]

Boats vary in proportions and construction methods according to their intended purpose, available materials, or local traditions. Canoes have been used since prehistoric times and remain in use throughout the world for transportation, fishing, and sport. Fishing boats vary widely in style, partly to match local conditions. Pleasure craft used in recreational boating include ski boats, pontoon boats, and sailboats. Houseboats may be used for vacationing or long-term residence. Lighters are used to move cargo to and from large ships unable to get close to shore. Lifeboats have rescue and safety functions.

Boats can be propelled by manpower (e.g., rowboats and paddle boats), wind (e.g., sailboats), and inboard/outboard motors (including gasoline, diesel, and electric).

History

Silver model of a boat, tomb PG 789, Royal Cemetery of Ur, 2600–2500 BCEFurther information: Maritime historyDifferentiation from other prehistoric watercraftThe earliest watercraft are considered to have been rafts. These would have been used for voyages such as the settlement of Australia, which occurred sometime between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago.

A boat differs from a raft by obtaining its buoyancy by having most of its structure exclude water with a waterproof layer, e.g., the planks of a wooden hull, the hide covering (or tarred canvas) of a currach. In contrast, a raft is buoyant because it joins components that are themselves buoyant, such as logs, bamboo poles, bundles of reeds, and floats (such as inflated hides, sealed pottery containers, or, in a modern context, empty oil drums). The key difference between a raft and a boat is that the former is a flow through structure, with waves able to pass up through it. Consequently, except for short river crossings, a raft is not a practical means of transport in colder regions of the world, as the users would be at risk of hypothermia. Today, that climatic limitation restricts rafts to between 40° north and 40° south, with similar boundaries in the past that have shifted as the world's climate has varied.[3]: 11 

TypesThe earliest boats may have been either dugouts or hide boats.[3]: 11  The oldest recovered boat in the world, the Pesse canoe, found in the Netherlands, is a dugout made from the hollowed tree trunk of a Pinus sylvestris that was constructed somewhere between 8200 and 7600 BC. This canoe is exhibited in the Drents Museum in Assen, Netherlands.[4][5] Other very old dugout boats have also been recovered.[6][7][8] Hide boats, made from covering a framework with animal skins, could be equally as old as logboats, but such a structure is much less likely to survive in an archaeological context.[9]: 63 

Plank-built boats are considered, in most cases, to have developed from the logboat. There are examples of logboats that have been expanded: by deforming the hull under heat, by raising the sides with added planks, or by splitting down the middle and adding a central plank to widen it. (Some of these methods have been in quite recent use – there is no simple developmental sequence). The earliest known plank-built boats are from the Nile, dating to the third millennium BC. Outside Egypt, the next earliest are from England. The Ferriby boats are dated to the early second millennium BC and the end of the third millennium BC.[9]: 63, 66–67  Plank-built boats require a level of woodworking technology that was first available in the Neolithic with more complex versions only becoming achievable in the Bronze Age.[10]: 59