Query: Why "she" in reference to a ship?

[Alan Baragona]

I was taught that it was the influence of Latin, in which the grammatical
gender of _navis_ "ship" is feminine.  The OED dates the use of "she" for
ships and other objects to the late 14th century (Barbour's _The Bruce_ ca.
1375 being the earliest citation), so the influence of Latin would make
sense, though I don't have any good documentation that makes it certain.

Alan Baragona

----- Original Message -----
From: "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2006 11:32 AM
Subject: Query: Why "she" in reference to a ship?


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> Subject:      Query: Why "she" in reference to a ship?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>     One of my students  has asked me why a ship can be referred to as
> "she." Would anyone know?  Have there been any scholarly articles written
> on this subject?
>
> Gerald Cohen