A Guide To Types of Ships

ByRaunekAugust 1, 2021Guidelines
Cargo ships are classified into various types based on purpose, size,
type of cargo etc.

The economic factor is of prime importance in designing a merchant

ship. Every owner wants maximum return on their investment, which
means a ship’s construction not only depends on the current
economic necessities, but the factor of future adaptability also plays
a part.

From the preliminary design of a vessel due for construction, the

following information can be obtained:
1. Dimensions
2. Displacement
3. Stability
4. Propulsive characteristics and hull form
5. Preliminary general arrangement
6. Principal structural details
A layout of the various ship types and their subdivisions will be listed,
covering a wide range of all vessels in operation.
The type of ship plays an important role in deciding the
above-mentioned parameters.

Types of Ships
Ships are mainly classified into the following types:
1. Container Ships -
2. Bulk Carrier
3. Tanker Ships
4. Passenger Ships
5. Naval Ships
6. Offshore Ships
7. Special Purpose Ships

1. Container Ships
As the name suggests, a vessel structured specifically to hold huge
quantities of cargo compacted in different types of containers is
referred to as a container vessel (ship).
 Image For Representation
Purpose Only
Types of Container Ships On Basis Of Sizes:
● Panamax
● Suezmax
● Post-Panamax
● Post-Suezmax
● Post-Malaccamax
Refrigerated Container Ships: These Vessels carry refrigerated cargo
(mainly in refrigerated containers)

2. Bulk Carrier Ships

Bulk carriers are a type of ship which transports cargoes (generally
dry cargo) in bulk quantities. The cargo transported in such ships is
loose cargo, i.e. without any specific packaging and generally
contains items like food grains, ores and coals and even cement.

Representation image
● Conventional bulkers
● Geared bulker
● Gearless bulker
● Self-discharging bulker
● Lakers
● BIBO
Some other forms of dry cargo are:
 ● Tramps: A boat or ship engaged in the tramp trade does not
have a fixed schedule or published ports of call.
● Cargo Liners: An ocean liner is designed to transport
passengers from point A to point B. The classic example of
such a voyage would be a transatlantic crossing from Europe to
America.

3. Tanker Ships
Tanker ships are specialised vessels for carrying a large amount of
liquid cargo. Tankers are further sub-divided into different types
based on the cargo they carry.

Tanker Turning in Gibraltar –

Credits: Depositphotos
Read in detail – What are tanker ships?
The main types of tankers are:
Oil Tankers: Oil tankers mainly carry crude oil and its by-products.
Liquefied Gas Carriers: A gas carrier (or gas tanker) is designed to
transport LPG, LNG or liquefied chemical gases in bulk.
Chemical and Product Carriers: A chemical tanker is a type of tanker
ship designed to transport chemicals and different liquid products in
bulk
Other types of tankers: Some other types of tankers are juice tankers,
wine tankers, integrated tug barges etc.
Based on their size, tankers are further divided into various types
such as:

● VLCC
● ULCC
● Panamax
● Aframax
● Suezmax
● Capesize
● Handymax
● Lighters
● Handy
4. Roll-on Roll-Off Ships
Ro-Ro is an acronym for Roll-on/roll-off. Roll-on/roll-off ships are
vessels that are used to carry wheeled cargo.

● Pure Car Carrier (PCC) and Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC)
RoRo Ships
● Container Vessel + Ro-Ro (ConRo) Ship
● General Cargo + Ro-Ro Ship (GenRo) Ships
● RoPax
● Complete RoRo Ships

5. Passenger Ships

Passenger ships, as the name suggests, are mainly used for

transiting passengers.

They are mainly classified into:

Ferries – Vessels used for transiting passengers (and vehicles) on
short-distance routes are called ferries.
Cruise Ships – Mainly used for recreational activities, cruise ships are
like luxurious floating hotels with state-of-the-art facilities.
They are further classified as:
 ● Liners, Cruise Ships, Pilgrimage Ships
● Cross Channel Ferries, Coastal Ferries, Harbour Ferries
● Arctic and Antarctic Cruises

6. Offshore Vessels
Offshore vessels mainly help in oil exploration and construction jobs
at sea. Offshore vessels are of several types.

Some of the main ones are:

● Supply Ship: Vessels that supply to offshore rigs
● Pipe Layers: Vessels engages in laying pipes and cables
● Crane Barges or floating cranes: A crane vessel, crane ship or
floating crane is a ship with a crane specialized in lifting heavy
loads
● Semi-submersible Drill Rigs: These are Mobile Offshore Drilling
Units to make stable platforms for drilling oil and gas
● Drill Ships: A drillship is a merchant vessel designed for use in
exploratory offshore drilling of new oil and gas wells or
scientific drilling purposes
● Accommodation Barges: Could be a stand-alone floating hotel
or can include accommodation as well as space for Cargo
● Production Platforms: To extract and process oil and natural
gas or to temporarily store product until it can be brought to
shore for refining and marketing
● Floating Storage Unit (FSU) – Floating vessel mainly used for
storage of oil and by-products.
● Floating Production and Storage Unit (FPSO): A floating
production storage and offloading unit is a floating vessel used
by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and
processing of hydrocarbons and the storage of oil
● Anchor handling vessels – These are used for offshore
construction and installation operations.
 ● Diving vessels – Are vessels used by divers for diving in the
ocean for underwater jobs.

7. Fishing Vessels
Ships or boats used for recreational or commercial fishing at sea are
called fishing vessels.

Fishing vessels are mainly classified into two types – trawlers and
non-trawling vessels.
● Trawlers, Purse Seiners: A fishing trawler, also known as a
dragger, is a commercial fishing vessel designed to operate
fishing trawls. Trawling is a method of fishing that involves
actively dragging or pulling a trawl through the water behind
one or more trawlers. A purse seine is a large wall of netting
deployed around an entire area or school of fish. The seine has
floats along the top line with a lead line threaded through rings
along the bottom. Once a school of fish is located, a skiff
encircles the school with the net.
● Factory Ships: A factory ship, also known as a fish processing
vessel, is a large ocean-going vessel with extensive on-board
facilities for processing and freezing caught fish or whales

8. Speciality Vessels
Speciality vessels are constructed and used for specific purposes.
Tugs: A tug (tugboat) is a boat or ship that manoeuvres vessels by
pushing or towing them.
Tenders – A boat or a larger ship used to service or support other
boats or ships, generally to transport people and/or supplies, is called
a tender vessel.
Pilot Crafts – Pilot crafts are used for the transportation of harbour
pilots.
Cable Layers – Cable laying vessels help in laying cables onto the sea
bed.
Research Vessels – They are special types of vessels used to carry
out a variety of research at sea. Some of the most common types of
research vessels are – seismic vessels, hydrographic vessels,
oceanographic vessels, polar vessels etc.
Salvage Vessels – Salvage vessels are vessels engaged in salvage
operation; recovery of lost property at sea.
Lightships: A light vessel, or lightship, is a ship that acts as a
lighthouse. They are used in waters that are too deep or otherwise
unsuitable for lighthouse construction.
Barge Carriers: A barge is a flat-bottomed boat built mainly for river
and canal transport of heavy goods.
Timber Carriers: Vessels that carry timber
Livestock Carriers: Vessels that carry livestock/animals
Ice breaker ships: They are used for cutting ice deposits in extremely
cold climate conditions to make waters navigational.

9. High-Speed Craft
High-speed crafts are a special type of technologically advanced
high-performance (typically high speed) marine vehicles. Though
most of these technologies are not used in commercial vessels, a few
have been successfully implemented and tested in conventional
merchant vessels of small scale.
Some of the main types of high-speed crafts are:
● Multihulls including wave piercers
● Small waterplane area, twin-hull (SWATH)
● Surface effect ship (SES) and Hovercraft
● Hydrofoil
● Wing in Ground Craft (WIG)

10. Dredgers
Dredging is an excavation activity usually carried out underwater, in
shallow seas or freshwater areas, to gather up bottom sediments and
widen.

Dredgers are vessels with excavation tools used for removing sand
and other types of deposits from the seabed. Dredgers are used for
several purposes, such as making shallow coastal areas navigational,
deep-sea mining etc.
Dredgers are mainly classified into two types:
1. Mechanical dredgers
2. Hydraulic dredgers

Ship prefixes generally refer to the abbreviations carved in front of the

ship names, be it naval or merchant vessel, comprising of few letters
compounded to denote a particular meaning. The prefixes can also
refer to a few letters used to denote a particular fact.
Ship prefixes used on merchant vessels are mainly to point out the
propulsion technique employed in the ship, such as the abbreviation
“SS” means “steamship”, indicating that the ship runs on steam
propulsion. Ship prefixes can also include type of ship such as “RV”
which denotes “research vessel”, and it affirms the purpose of the
ship, which in this case is to acquire knowledge in a systematic and
scientific manner. Merchant ship prefixes though frequent in usage,
may differ in style, for instance, a slash can be introduced in between,
viz. “M/S”.
Usage of abbreviations in Naval Ships
On the other hand, the naval ship prefixes are extensively used to
shorten the longer titles into easy short forms for convenient
utilization. The “His/Her Majesty’s Ship” are examples of the long
titles used in the Royal Navy and thus the ship names such as H.M.S
(or HMS) have come into common use.
The ship prefix in the naval shipping also points out the ship type like
the “U.S.F” (United States Frigate) referred to the frigates employed
under the Navy section of The United states of America. Nowadays
only an exclusive ship prefix is used to represent all the warships of
the navy of a particular nation. In case of auxiliaries and the vessels
of allied services, various ship names can be introduced such the
“coast guards”.

It is not a compulsory rule that ship prefixes are to be attached with

every vessel, and the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Kriegsmarine
from Third Reich are good examples. Thus, the ship-naming process
is not followed universally. Few English writers promote ship prefixes
like the “IJN” that stands for “Imperial Japanese Navy” fleet, “HIJMS”
referring to “His Imperial Japanese Majesty’s Ship”, and the “DKM”
signifying “Deutsche Kriegsmarine” vessels. Interestingly, the names
are an outcome of logical coherence and agreement with
abbreviations like “HMS” or “USS”. Most of the writers simply follow
the simple norms as prescribed by the navy and leave out the ship
prefixes.

Alternative identification codes

Although after the onset of the 20th century, most of the navy
organizations are inclined towards recognizing vessels by their
specific hull numbers. These hull numbers are a type of identification
codes that are marked on the ship’s sides. The practice of using hull
numbers for identification purpose, differs from one navy to another.
For instance, the Navy of United States of America prefer the usage
of hull classification symbols while Europe’s Royal Navy and a few
more European countries opt for the pennant numbering system.

Nomenclature for Merchant Vessels

In the year of 1939, a standard system of nomenclature was
introduced by the Shipping Ministry of Britain that signified that all
merchant vessels that are built in Britain on account of the
Government should have the prefix “Empire” attached to their names.
This was deemed mandatory, except in the case of very small
merchant vessels. This new naming system was applicable to the
purchased vessels or ships acquired through an authoritative request
or demand, older vessels from The United States of America, modern
leased vessels, ships won as a prize, salvaged and outfitted vessels,
seized enemy vessels etc.

List of Ship Prefixes

Today, a wide variety of ship prefixes are used for naval and merchant
vessels around the world. Some of the main used ones are as
follows:
MT – Motor Tanker
MV/MS – Motor vessel/Motor Ship
LB- Lifeboat
NS – Nuclear Ship
RV- Research Vessel
LPG/C – Liquefied Petroleum Gas Carrier
LNG/C – Liquefied Natural Gas Carrier
NS- Nuclear Ship
PSV- Platform Supply Vessel
MY- Motor Yacht
AHT- Anchor Handling Tug
CS – Cable Ship
DSV- Diving Support Vessel/ Deep Submerge Vessel
FV- Fishing Vessel
GTS- Gas Turbine Ship
RMS – Royal Mail Ship
SS- Steam Ship
PSV – Platform Support Vessel
TS- Training Ship
SV- Sailing Vessel

Naval nomenclature in some other countries

The Royal Navy from Netherlands, the English prefix used is “HLNMS”
while the original Dutch one is “Hr.Ms” (or “Zr.Ms”). Since the Dutch
names cannot be used on a broader platform or in documents written
in English, the English ones are coined from the Dutch translations. In
fact, it is a rule that unless a particular Dutch vessel from the Navy is
launched into active service, it does not implement its ship prefixes.
The ship name “NUSHIP” is used in Australia, to categorize the
noncommissioned vessels in the fleet.

Ship Prefix for retired ships

When a particular ship is declared out of active service, a prefix of
“ex-” is attached in front of its name. This is done to separate the
stricken vessel from any other vessel bearing the same name and in
service, at that time. As an instance, the USS Constellation vessel
(CV-64) came to be known as the “ex-Constellation” vessel after it
accepted retirement in the year of 2003.

Nomenclature for Merchant Vessels

In the year of 1939, a standard system of nomenclature was
introduced by the Shipping Ministry of Britain that signified that all
merchant vessels that are built in Britain on account of the
Government should have the prefix “Empire” attached to their names.
This was deemed mandatory, except in the case of very small
merchant vessels. This new naming system was applicable to the
purchased vessels or ships acquired through an authoritative request
or demand, older vessels from The United States of America, modern
leased vessels, ships won as a prize, salvaged and outfitted vessels,
seized enemy vessels etc.