I was in the Air Force, not the Navy, but as a day sailor, I'm pretty sure that the term 'boat' would not apply to the El Faro.
“I was in the Air Force, not the Navy, but as a day sailor, I’m pretty sure that the term ‘boat’ would not apply to the El Faro. “
The El Faro was 790’ long. The author must think the cut off from boat to ship starts a 800’. :-)
Given that submarines are called boats, the term may be more appropriate at this point.
Anything too big for one skilled sailor to handle solo is a ship. We still call them “boats” amongst ourselves.
My brother was a "sewer pipe sailor" and made it clear that the only boats in the Navy were submarines. That may actually be appropriate for the El Faro as it went under in some very deep water near crooked island. The Coast Guard cutters located quite a bit of flotsam and an oil slick. The seas were one foot with a 12 knot wind. If they could have held out one more day they most likely would have survived.
Regards,
GtG