Talk:Motor ship

What's the distinction?
What is the difference between a Merchant Vessel (MV) and a Motor Vessel? - Ageekgal (talk) 21:26, 5 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Easy - 'MV' doesn't stand for 'Merchant Vessel' (at least not in the major maritime countries) it stands for 'Motor Vessel', which distinguishes a diesel-powered ship from a steam-powered one.


 * Diesel engines were preferred for some cargoes, such as Aviation spirit, which are highly inflammable, and where the risk of ignition from a spark is much too high to allow the use of a steam engine and its associated firebox and boilers. So tankers were often 'MV's rather than 'SS's. A good example would be the MV San Demetrio.


 * BTW, the 'SS', 'MV', 'PS', 'LS', prefixes are ones originally devised by Lloyd's Register to specify what type of propulsion a ship carried. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.4.57.101 (talk) 14:09, 17 September 2011 (UTC)

Motor ships and steam ships

 * Moved from User talk:Tenmei#Motor ships and steam ships

In the article Motor ship you added a paragraph that I think is quite confusing. Do you really mean that ships with diesel engines are called "steamers"? I'll mark the paragraph, but you might want to clarify. --LPfi (talk) 09:22, 8 July 2011 (UTC)


 * In response, the questioned paragraph has been moved here. Perhaps a "variant" sub-heading is needed? Perhaps the crisp, descriptive text is adequate without mentioning alternate usage? --Tenmei (talk) 14:56, 8 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Variants
 * The term steamer is occasionally used out of nostalgia for diesel motor-driven vessels. Screw-driven steamships generally carry the prefix letters "SS" before their names, meaning 'Steam Ship' (or possibly 'screw-driven steamship'). Paddle steamers carry the prefix "PS"  or "PW". and steamships powered by steam turbine may be prefixed "TS" (turbine ship).


 * 'SS' originally stood for Screw Steamer (and 'PS' for Paddle Steamer), the initial letter referring to the method of propulsion, i.e., propeller or paddle wheel, however later after the decline in the use of paddle wheels the 'SS' came to mean just Steam Ship. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.4.57.101 (talk) 14:15, 17 September 2011 (UTC)

External links modified (February 2018)
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MS/MV: internal combustion
"A motor ship or motor vessel is a ship propelled by an internal combustion engine". If the SS originally stood for Screw Ship, cf paddle ship (PS) then that may become a regrettable or obsolete definition. "A motor ship or motor vessel is a ship primarily propelled by a motor, rather than a sailing ship" may come to make better sense, even allowing for large Diesel auxiliaries in some sailing vessels. NS Savannah drove a screw by blowing steam through turbines, but the nuclear kettle used seems worth distinguishing; modern cruise ships drive their screws electrically, don't yet run off batteries, so the issue isn't what is connected to a propeller's shaft, presently. Midgley (talk) 14:16, 18 January 2023 (UTC)