FYI: Why are ships traditionally known as she rather than he or it? 'A ship is called a 'she' because there is always a great deal of bustle around her; there is usually a gang of men about her, she has a waist and stays; it takes a lot of paint to keep her good looking; it is not the initial expense that breaks you, it is the upkeep; she can be all decked out; it takes an experienced man to handle her correctly; and without a man at the helm, she is absolutely uncontrollable. She shows her topsides, hides her bottom and, when coming into port, always heads for buoys.' So says the internet's humorous explanation, anyway. The Titanic may not have ever known the perils of trying to find a bra that fit, but that didn't prevent her from being referred to in female terms. The same can be said for every ship, boat, submarine and other aquatic vessel that sailed the oceans blue - but why? After all, there's nothing intrinsically feminine about ships, docks and shipyards. If anything, the world of making and breaking ships seems to be in the male domain - and yet, since time immemorial, these hulking masses of steel and bolts have been assigned a gender - and the wind has been most definitely in her sails. While it is hard to pinpoint exactly when the tradition began, it became well-established; it was the female of the species that rode the waves - at least until 2002, when it was decided vessels should be referred to as 'it'. The Romance languages such as Latin and contemporary Spanish, French and Italian, assign gender to nouns. In the French language, for example, la (the) assigns the female gender upon the object in question. Because ships often take the feminine gender in these languages it is thought this may have been a contributing factor in the feminisation of shipping. Also, seafarers of old depended heavily on the strength of their ships and alluding to them in fond, female terms gave an air of romance to the tribulations of setting sail for destinations unknown. Other theories suggest it was the carved goddess or figurehead bolted onto the bow of a ship that gave rise to the female terminology. And some believe that the tradition dates back even further, to ancient Greece. But in 2002, the venerable shipping newspaper Lloyd's List put paid to centuries of tradition, decreeing that, as characterless commodities, the use of female terminology was outdated when applied to ships. It was a 'reflection of the modern business of shipping' according to the paper's editor, Julian Bray. But the decision came under fire. 'Culture is a question of continuing tradition and one should preserve those inexplicable quirks,' said Pieter van der Merwe, the general editor at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. Despite the loss of their female attributes, one thing is certain. Every maritime vessel, at some point, has had to make a 'maiden' voyage. And it doesn't look as though that term will be sent to the scrapyard.
