Pls answer a question - a sub is a boat and a frigate is a ship. What's the difference and why?
No, the frigate is a target.
Reason for "Boat". Subs started out small. Boats are small, ships are big. Also somewhat of a derogatory remark I would wager.
Tradition kept the terms in use.
Try coming up with a good rule for separating Frigates from Destroyers and Destroyers from Cruisers. Gun size of the main armament and tonnage used to make it easy. Those distinctions are very blurred today, as are the original reasons for the names.
"Pls answer a question - a sub is a boat and a frigate is a ship. What's the difference and why?"
The only explaination I ever heard was that a ship has expansion joints. These joints allow the ship to flex when it spans 2 waves. A boat is a rigid frame. Thus a small vessel, (PT boat, and life boat), is a boat, as well as a large, rigid, sub. A frigate, destroyer, cruiser, etc. is a ship.
USN 1977-1981
Well I always heard it like this, a ship can carry a boat and a boat can't carry a ship.
Only terminology and custom. The submarine service long ago chose to differentiate themselves from the surface fleet with a handful of terms. The fleet air arm does the same thing in its own way.
Classically, the difference between a ship and a boat was whether it was seaworthy (ships are, boats aren't). Obviously, submarines are seaworthy, so I have no idea why they are referred to as boats.
I'm an ex-submariner and here's the story I got:
In the beginning days of true submarines - a bit over a century ago - the subs were quite small and did not have a very big range. For example they couldn't carry enough fuel to make it across oceans.
For those reasons, subs were carried aboard larger ships to get them where they were needed. By traditional naval usage, any craft that is carried aboard a ship, and can be hoisted into and out of the water, is referred to as a 'boat.'
Well, boats is what they started out as and that term became tradition itself within the ranks of submariners, even as the 'boats' themselves got larger and gained cross-oceanic endurance. Ohio class missle boats are as big as WW II heavy cruisers, and just one of them packs more firepower than has been expended (on both sides!) in all the wars this country has fought - but, with pride, their crewmembers refer to their vessel as a 'boat'.