Boat

A boat is a watercraft intended to float on, and offer transport over, water. Usually this water will be inland or in protected coastal areas. However, boats such as the whaleboat were historically intended to be operated from a ship in an offshore environment. In Naval terms, a boat is something small enough to be carried aboard another vessel (a ship). Boats that are notable exceptions to this concept due to their huge size are the Great Lakes freighter, riverboat, and ferryboat. These examples do, however, usually operate on inland and protected coastal waters. Modern submarines may also be referred to as boats (in spite of underwater capabilities and size), but this is perhaps due to the fact that the first submarines could be carried by a ship and were certainly not capable of making offshore passages on their own. Boats may have military, other government, research, or commercial usage; but a vessel, regardless of size, that is in private, non-commercial usage is almost definitely a boat.