Curb your anthropomorphizing
An article in today’s Baltimore Sun about the N.S. Savannah refers to the ship throughout as she and her. By a happy congruence, the Associated Press Stylebook, the New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, and the Chicago Manual of Style all advise that ships and boats are it. So, for that matter, does The Sun’s stylebook.
The Times is indulgent enough to add “except for literary effect.” But be advised, if you are a journalist striving for “literary effect,” you run the risk of stimulating the reaction expressed in one of my newsroom haiku: “Proud reporter asks, / ‘Don’t you think it’s lyrical?’ / Shoot me in the head.”
With hurricane season upon us, it is well to keep in mind that storms also lack gender.
Comments
The US Navy Style Guide says:
Ships may be referred to as "she" or "her."
Yield to the higher authority, John.
http://www.navy.mil/tools/view_styleguide_all.asp
Posted by: Eve | August 1, 2011 6:07 PM
Godspeed, Eve. Especially as the US (and the Royal) Navies are considerably older than any Style book.
Posted by: Patricia the Terse | August 1, 2011 8:58 PM
If the US Navy Style Guide jumped off the roof, I wouldn't feel compelled to follow its example there either.
A foundational skill of editing is knowing when and how to determine what authorities to follow. The US Navy Style Guide is a fine authority for sailors, but for print publications, it is not a higher authority than Chicago or the AP stylebook.
The age of an authority is irrelevant.
I'm envisioning a newsroom that has ground to a halt because one copy editor is citing a yachting manual that refers to a yacht as "it"; pleasure craft nomenclature is exempt from the purview of the navy, right, Mr. McIntyre? At John's other elbow is an editor holding a 1594 codex of Ye Queene's Englische, which clearly states that livestock owned by the monarch take "who," not "that" ...
I wouldn't wish that situation on John, but he has enough authority of his own to expeditiously dispose of the problems.
Posted by: Brian Throckmorton | August 2, 2011 1:35 PM
Of course a stylebook has to choose, but railing against the use of "she" as shoot-me-in-the-head stuff just sounds like peevery. (Admission: like Miss Terse I have Navy in the family).
Posted by: Picky | August 3, 2011 4:09 AM