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Comment by Grazester | Hacker News Reader

Question. It is normal to say drive a boat? My father was a sea captain for his entire life and never used the word drive. I also grew up around fishermen and being onboard when they were in port,them like my dad used the word steer or captain.

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Here in southeast Alaska, I usually hear people say "drive". For example if people are talking about a somewhat sketchy or tense return from a trip, you might ask them "Who was driving?"

I never hear anyone say "Who was captain?" or "Who was steering?" "Captain" seems to imply a title, and "steering" sounds like you just took the wheel for a moment.

That may be different for people who spend a lot of time on commercial boats. When I've been in formal settings, say on a police boat while doing search and rescue work, we will talk about the person who is filling the role of captain. But we still say that person is "driving" the boat.

I specifically remember seeing this distinction in, of all things, a 40's war-era Superman comic, where an everyman G.I. character tasked with truck driving was told, "anyone can steer - we need drivers!" Which makes me believe "drive" probably is nautical in origin and then corrupted through casual usage in automotive transit, where steering and driving are more often equated.

Maybe not. Long before there were cars, the people who held the reins of a carriage were called drivers. They were literally driving the horses forward. So too the mule drivers

“Pilots a boat”, is what I was taught.

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