Ships

📖 In short

Ships are one of the oldest and most important ways of transport. Every day thousands of ships cross the seas and oceans, carrying people and goods from country to country. Most trade between the world's countries travels by ship.

🤩 Did you know?

Some container ships today are more than 400 meters long.
The famous British liner “Mauretania” was launched in 1907.
Ships' speed is measured in a unit called the knot.
Many ships are registered in Panama, which has one of the biggest merchant fleets.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 Why do they float?

An iron ship is very heavy, so how does it float? The secret is its shape: it's hollow and wide inside, pushing aside a lot of water, so the water pushes it up with a force that holds it.

🔍 From sail to engine

Long ago ships moved with oars or sails filled by the wind, like the “dhows” of Arab sailors. Then came steamships, then modern ships with huge engines.

💡 Ships of every kind

There are big passenger liners like floating hotels, container ships carrying thousands of colorful boxes, huge oil tankers, fishing boats, and icebreakers that cut their way through frozen seas.

🎯 Parts of a ship

The front of a ship is called the bow and the back the stern, where the rudder that steers it is. The captain, who's in charge of the ship, stands on the bridge to command it.

🧩 Test yourself

1 Who commands a ship?

2 What moves sailing ships?

3 Some container ships today are more than ?? meters long.

4 Which picture shows “Ships”?

🚀 Discover more

📷 Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons

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