I decided to look up the Bob Barker to see what kind of ship it is, and Wiki refers to it as MY Bob Barker. ‘MY’ is ‘Motor Yacht’. Why is Bob Barker a ‘motor yacht’ (MY) instead of a ‘motor vessel’ (MV)?
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I don’t know. Wiki defines a yacht as a pleasure/leisure vessel and the Bob Barker doesn’t seem to have fit that description at any time in its career. Maybe because it is not a commerce vessel anymore?
Well, MV is pretty clearly reserved for vessels of commerce, and the Bob Barker is clearly not a commercial vessel. I speculate that this is a case of ‘best fit.’ The purpose of the MY Bob Barker could plausibly be stretched to ‘supporting a hobby,’ thus the leisure designation.
Probably because it isn’t YOUR Bob Barker.
Is that true? MV (or M/V) can be used for Motor Vessel or Merchant Vessel. Bob Barker is a Motor Vessel. I don’t have a cite, but I’m sure I’ve seen non-commercial vessels with news reports with the prefix MV.
I believe the Bob Barker was used as a tour boat of some sort after it was retired from whaling, and Sea Shepherd probably didn’t bother to change categorizations (if the ship is even registered – there seems to be some confusion about it’s flag).
Plus the prefixes aren’t really set in stone, sort or like .org and .com.
It’s pretty solid, but with ships, it’s not quite a total lock. When you see ‘MV’ or ‘MS,’ you can be pretty sure they are commercial vessels. Doesn’t mean that they have to be cargo vessels, but they’re used, or have been used, in a money-making capacity in some way, which the Bob Barker is not.
Understand that there are so many possible permutations that there will always be vessels that do not fit solidly any category (as is the case with the good ship Bob Barker), and some vessels will change categories, but if they don’t change registry, may be grandfathered in their old designation.