Q – As long-time readers and clients, I have to tell you that your site has one confusing characteristic. I’ve noticed that, while the site refers to “River Boats” and “riverboating”, you seem to have taken to calling river boats “riverships”. I don‘t know if this is worrisome to others but I would like to suggest you use the correct term and drop the others. So what is the correct terminology? I think a lot of us would like to know. It seems like a small thing but it can be really annoying to your readers.
A – You are correct and thanks so much for your question. Our site uses the popular industry terminology “riverboat”. Almost everything you see written about the subject uses “riverboats”. Sometimes, you see the term in two words. All are incorrect.
A “boat” is something you can pack up and store in your backyard. Ships carry boats for shore excursions and for emergencies. The correct term is “rivership”. These are ships that sail enclosed rivers rather than the open sea. “River ship” is also accurate, perhaps most accurate. The term River Ship is used often in Australia and some publications such as USA Today use the term frequently. But most travel writers use the colloquial riverboat as it is an accepted term. So here is what we will do. Some of our writers use “Boats” and one or two use “Ships”.
We’re not going to change the name of our site. But, based on the feedback we get, we will promise to use only the term our readers prefer in the future.
