Talk:Launch (boat)

Motor Launch
It seems like this page should really be merged with the page on the British vessel. Either that, or it needs a lot more information on something OTHER than the Royal Navy vessels.Jkar (talk) 15:27, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

what about the launch in the age of sail? add a history section?
The article on jolly boats includes a list of other small craft carried aboard ships in the age of sail. Launch is linked to this article, which speaks exclusively of motor boats. Perhaps a history section could be added, describing the size of a launch, how it can have sails or be propelled by oars, and so on. Right now, there seems little reason to link from the article about the jolly boat to this one, if the knowledge one seeks is about the age of sail. --Prairieplant (talk) 01:37, 28 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Rereading the article, I see there were two sentences about the history, so I moved them to a new History section. There is a new sentence about the launch before the age of motors in the lead. I bet there is more to say about launches, around the world and over history, especially as the etymology given for the English word is Malay. --Prairieplant (talk) 01:46, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

Without a substantial discussion on launches in the age of sail, this article remains a stub, and a candidate for deletion. The latest attempt to expand the stub spoke only of articles already written, like UK military launches in WWII. --Prairieplant (talk) 03:16, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

Private launches
, I don't know what led you to make that revert, but launches are a defined type in Lloyds Register of American Yachts, with the 1912 edition, for instance, listing scores if not hundreds of such vessels with the abbreviation "Scw L" (ie "screw launch"). Taking just the first and penultimate page in the register as examples, there are no fewer than six and nine "Scw L"s listed respectively on just those two pages. Gatoclass (talk) 12:49, 18 December 2019 (UTC)
 * The US had a law against steam launches (see naphtha launch). Only the rich, those rich enough to employ a certified boilerman, could afford them. This didn't affect the larger steam yachts much (they were big enough to need a crew), and there would have been small launches used commercially, but it kept powered launches away from the 'pleasure craft' scale. 1912 is in the twentieth century, not the 19th, and by this time there's some indication that this rule has had a side effect of encouraging the US to adopt the development of petrol engines in launches much faster than in Europe. If you look at the listings you cite, you'll see nearly all of them are described as "gas engines" (i.e. gasoline, rather than gas engine). One's a  naphtha launch. The two steam yachts have tonnages listed (which is rare in this list) and are big enough to be yachts, not launches, and have triple expansion engines, which wouldn't be used in launches either (a launch typically had a simple expansion engine, sometimes a double expansion, but only the larger engines would be triple expansion, with all the condensers and higher boiler pressure that entailed).
 * I've no objection to this saying "in the 20th century, petrol / gasoline engined launches became popular", but that's neither steam nor 19th century. Andy Dingley (talk) 13:14, 18 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Well, I think you are mistaken to say there was no such thing as steam launches used as pleasure craft in the 19th century as I have come across quite a few in my own researches. However, I'm not going to pursue this further at the moment as I am busy on a bunch of other things. When I find the time I will do a little more research and then we can compare notes. Cheers, Gatoclass (talk) 14:34, 18 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes, steam launches are hugely popular around that time – just not in the US. Andy Dingley (talk) 14:35, 18 December 2019 (UTC)
 * You may be correct that steam launches weren't all that popular in the US, for the reasons you have given, but it appears that at least some folks were well-heeled enough to afford their own engineer for pleasure steam launches in the US as I've come across several in my travels. You've certainly made some worthwhile points however, and I'm content to leave the article as it is for now, we can take this up again in the new year when I will hopefully have some more time to devote to it. Gatoclass (talk) 14:57, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

Picture of Iranian lanja
I have removed the picture of an Iranian lanja, as it does not seem sufficiently relevant to the article. The only reason to include is that the word lanja is supposedly derived from the word launch. That does not seem enough to me. The pictures is shown here as excised from the article, with the caption that is has on commons (which seems deficient - no RS is required in commons for a caption, which is a source of a lot of inaccuracy.) ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 19:42, 9 January 2022 (UTC)

Removal of globalize hatnote
I've removed the globalize hatnote added by User:Wikiuser100 as I cannot see exactly what sort of material may be missing. I appreciate that may be my failing, but without some pointer as to what other editors might expect the article to include, it is a little difficult to fix the problem.

Specific to this article, this is an English language term for a type of boat that was adopted in what was the largest navy in the world at the time. (Of course, the breadth of meaning expanded after that.) The only thing that I can think of that is missing is some coverage of steam launches. ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 21:02, 10 December 2022 (UTC)


 * I note, with some embarrassment, that I had a discussion on this point with User:Wikiuser100 on their talk page in January 2022 and then I made a number of changes to the article along the lines discussed with that user. I am reasonably relaxed that their concerns have largely been met – though, of course, the article is still capable of improvement. ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 20:35, 11 December 2022 (UTC)

RAF launches/military launches
I have added a bit on the RAF rescue launch, but this is unsatisfactory as I do not have a reference. Worse still, the Military launches section is without any refs. Does anyone have sources that will enable them to improve this? ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 07:38, 24 September 2023 (UTC)