This document defines and describes different types of merchant vessels, including dry cargo ships, bulk carriers, container ships, tankers, coasters, and passenger ships. Dry cargo ships transport general cargo between ports. Bulk carriers carry bulk materials like ores and grains in large hatches. Container ships carry standardized shipping containers. Tankers transport liquids like oil and gas in their tanks. Coasters are shallow-hulled ships for coastal trade. Passenger ships primarily carry passengers rather than cargo.

1. MERCHANT VESSELS
A merchant vessel or trading vessel is a boat or ship that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This excludes pleasure craft that do
not carry passengers for hire and warships
Bressi Letizia
Simio Concolino Samuele

2. DRY CARGO SHIPS
A cargo ship or freighter
is any sort of ship or
vessel that carries cargo,
goods, and materials
from one port to
another. Cargo ships are
usually specially
designed for the task,
often being equipped
with cranes and other
mechanisms to load and
unload, and come in all
sizes.

3. BULK CARRIERS
A bulk carrier is an ocean-
going vessel used to
transport bulk cargo
items such as iron ore,
bauxite, coal, cement,
grain and similar cargo.
Bulk carriers can be
recognized by large box-
like hatches on deck,
designed to slide
outboard or fold fore-
and-aft to enable access
for loading or discharging
cargo.

4. CONTAINER SHIPS
Container ships are cargo
ships that carry all of their
load in truck-size
containers, in a technique
called containerization.
They form a common
means of commercial
intermodal freight
transport.

5. TANKERS
A tanker is a ship
designed to transport
liquids in bulk.
Oil tankers for the
transport of fluids, such
as crude oil, petroleum
products, liquefied
petroleum gas, liquefied
natural gas and chemicals,
also vegetable oils, wine
and other food - the
tanker sector comprises
one third of the world
tonnage

6. COASTERS
Coasters, smaller ships for any
category of cargo which are
normally not on ocean-
crossing routes, but in
coastwise trades. Coasters are
shallow-hulled ships used for
trade between locations on
the same island or continent.
Their shallow hulls mean that
they can get through reefs
where seagoing ships usually
cannot (seagoing ships have a
very deep hull for supplies
and trade, etc)

7. PASSENGER SHIPS
A passenger ship is a ship
whose primary function is
to carry passengers. The
category does not include
cargo vessels which have
accommodations for
limited numbers of
passengers, such as the
formerly ubiquitous
twelve-passenger
freighters in which the
transport of passengers is
secondary to the carriage
of freight.