Shipbucket

Cargo ships are generally used to carry cargo as the name suggests, and the may carry up to 12 passengers usually because that was the most a ship could carry without a doctor on board.
Passenger ships are for carrying passengers and maybe some cargo. The confusion is from a long dead bread of combination liners. These were usually cargo ships with the ability to carry a large number of passengers, but cargo was the main load.
To add to the confusion there are those passenger ships with a large cargo capacity, used mainly on shorter trips, such as the Mediterranean sea or various inter island routes in the south pacific.
So it is common sense which dictates what term to use: if the main load is cargo it is a cargo ship, and if the ship has a large number of passengers it is a cargo-passenger ship or a combi-liner. If it is a passenger ship with a large cargo capacity it should categorized as a passenger ship with cargo.

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Thank you Kim for the crest

"Never fear to try on something new. Remember that the Titanic was built by professionals, and the Ark by an amateur"

For the US MARAD ships, I'd base it on the use of the C or P series. For example, NS Savannah as P2 N1 40a would be a passenger ship, while SS Santa Mercedes as C4 S 49a would be a cargo ship. This solves most of the US issues, but leaves a few intact. I'd further class the WW1 and post-WW1 transports as passenger ships (as they are drawn in there liner configuration) which would include Maui, American Legion, Hawkeye State, Pan America & President Roosevelt. I'd have to drill and look at the handful of American ships that are not covered by the above broad rules.

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Some people call the Norwegian "Hurtigruten" ships as a ferry.

They mainly take passengers, but at the same time they have a big ro-ro deck, that can take any type of cargo and cars

so it's easy to see where the confusion is.


What about just call them a "Cargo liner" as a broad term. Thuse we have "Cargo ships" and "Cargo liner" instead of multiple terms but only two terms that cover it ...not exactly correct but in the broad term, good enough.

Thank You all for the answers so far.
Well, it seems that - following Novice's suggestion - if we were to have these ships kept separately ("cargo+some passengers" at "Cargo" and "passengers+substantial cargo" at "Passengers") then somebody would have to check them all, one by one.

@TimothyC
Thankfully, so far the problem didn't occured with the MARAD ships. Of course, in this case the belonging to either C or P series could be indeed a decisive factor.

@Heuhen
Problem we have here is that ships in question need to be classified either as Cargo or Passenger, while the (alternatively) "Passenger and Cargo" or "Cargo and Passenger" description are inserted in sub-type.
Speaking of Hurtigruten - I finished uploading Norway earlier today and put large part of them into Passenger TYPE as "Coastal Service Vessel" SUB-TYPE (though some are in the Ro-Ro's - well, You can check for Yourself - in fact I'd be happy if You did and check if everything's ok there).

I'm happy with the current Passenger and Cargo split, I think Novice's explanation makes sense. Primary use passengers = Passenger Ship and primary use cargo = Cargo Ship.
Ro-Ro ferries and Ro-Ro cargo are under Ro-Ro ships.
None Ro-Ro ferries under Passenger

I see no reason to further complicate with more TYPE sub-divisions and lumping them all together would feel odd given the pains we've gone to, to split out military ships.

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@Hood
In principle I'm happy with Passenger/Cargo split as well.
But now someone should check all those that in SUB-TYPE have "Passenger and Cargo" or "Cargo and Passenger". Any volunteers?
(or it will have to be me again? )

I'll do it. Giving the correct, and as simplified as possible designation will help all.

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Thank you Kim for the crest

"Never fear to try on something new. Remember that the Titanic was built by professionals, and the Ark by an amateur"

@Novice
Thank You very much! That's a great news.

EDIT - Uploads:
13 October - Denmark, Norway
14 October - Poland

Work on GB has been delayed but I hope to start soon.

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Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

I checked the Norwegian folder, couldn't find any major problems, only drawings that deserves to be beautified!