Tell me about your world’s boats!

I’m a major maritime nerd, so I want to know about your world’s ships.

-What seas do they sail? Water? Air? Space? Something else entirely?

-What powers them? Sails? Steam? Atomic bombs exploding at just the right time?

-Who are their crews?

-What do they transport?

-What’s a voyage like?

My world’s present-era ships are rather diverse, albeit limited to sea and basic air travel. The vast majority are square-rigged sailing ships, although much inland trade is achieved by river schooners and barges. These barges are drawn by locomotives along the riverbank, which drag the vessels along with heavy tow-ropes.

Airships are constructed of treated animal hide bladders trussed around avianbone or light wooden frames, inflated with hydrogen. Propulsion of airships is largely achieved by small, condensing steam engines, and these ships do not travel particularly fast on account of their small, efficiency-focused boilers.

Most sailing ships are on the scale of 500-2000 tons displacement, and carry three to five masts. In almost all current designs, these ships fly a gaff spanker on their mizzen, and square rigs on the other masts, with staysails riding the topmast stays. These ships carry around twenty crew at the smallest and over a hundred for the largest. Voyages can last many months, but are usually no longer than two, given following winds. Steam tugs can also provide assistance to ships caught in the world’s few doldrums, for a fee. As a holdover from past times, many ships instead carry several longboats equipped with oars, by which becalmed ships can be slowly towed to fairer winds.

Most ships are in the general cargo trade, with fishing, whaling, combat, and patrol ships making a smaller fraction. Passenger ships are few and far-between, with most passengers instead finding working passage as a common hand, or shipping aboard as paying passengers in surplus officers’ quarters.

Piracy is still somewhat common, and an ever-present threat. While most pirates still make use of galeasses and other similar oar-sail sloops, a few pirates have since acquired, through plunder, small steam-sail vessels to use in the chase. Mariners are cautioned to look and listen for steamships on routes not frequented by these otherwise quite exotic vessels. In fog, a steamship can be identified by its characteristic chuffing sound, or a low rumble below the waterline.