A ship is a large buoyant watercraft. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size, shape and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas,rivers,and oceans for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing, entertainment, public safety, and warfare. Historically, a "ship" was a sailing vessel with at least three square-rigged masts and a full bowsprit.
In armed conflict and in daily life, ships have become an integral part of modern commercial and military systems. Fishing boats are used by millions of fishermen throughout the world. Military forces operate vessels for naval warfare and to transport and support forces ashore. Commercial vessels, nearly 35,000 in number, carried 7.4 billion tons of cargo in 2007. As of 2011, there are about 104,304 ships with IMO numbers in the world.
Ships were always a key in history's great explorations and scientific and technological development. Navigators such as Zheng He spread such inventions as the compass and gunpowder. Ships have been used for such purposes as colonization and the slave trade, and have served scientific, cultural, and humanitarian needs. After the 16th century, new crops that had come from and to the Americas via the European seafarers significantly contributed to the world population growth.Ship transport has shaped the world's economy into today's energy-intensive pattern.
"Ships" is a rock ballad written and originally performed by British musician Ian Hunter. The song was first released on Hunter's fourth solo album, You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic in 1979. It was later recorded by singer Barry Manilow for his sixth studio album, One Voice. His version peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song is said to be about Hunter's relationship with his father.
Ships (SHIPS (シップス), Shippusu) is a Japanese pop group consisting of Shikō Kanai and Takuya Ide. The unit was created mainly for the anime Kirarin Revolution as all members lend voices to characters in the series. They have released two singles and have had two additional tracks appear on Kirarin Revolution compilation albums.
Harlan Kredit (born 1939) is a multiple award-winning Dutch-American high school teacher from Lynden, Washington. He was the first Washingtonian teacher ever to be inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame. He has spent the majority of his career at Lynden Christian High School. Kredit is also a ranger at Yellowstone Park in Wyoming during the summer and a prolific photographer for the National Park Service.
Kredit has gained renown for his "investigative" approach to teaching secondary biology and emphasis on leadership, and for his efforts in fish and wildlife conservation, particularly along Whatcom County's Fishtrap Creek (which eventually dispenses into Puget Sound). His students know him for his familiar exclamation of "It's a great day to be alive!"
Harlan Kredit was born and raised in Lynden, Washington, alongside Fishtrap Creek, which contained "huge numbers of salmon each fall."
Kredit graduated from Calvin College in 1961 and taught high school science education in Hudsonville, Michigan from 1962 to 1972. In 1967 he gained a master's degree in Science Teaching from the College of William and Mary.