Ships are not merely grammatically feminine, they are personified and given a feminine identity.
In German ships are neuter, it is das Schiff, yet they are given a feminine identity. (This also goes for some other languages like Danish).
Danish grammar
In Danish the differentiation is between neuter/no gender and gendered. Since Danish collapsed masculine and feminine into one category. So technically a ship could at best be “gendered” grammatically rather than feminine. But it isn’t gendered and the ship is still a woman.
I genuinely believe the answer is that it’s a product of men owning them using them as a sort of status symbol. There is also a tradition of doing the same with guns (like a rifle named “Betsy” or whatever).
Ships are not merely grammatically feminine, they are personified and given a feminine identity. In German ships are neuter, it is das Schiff, yet they are given a feminine identity. (This also goes for some other languages like Danish).
Danish grammar
In Danish the differentiation is between neuter/no gender and gendered. Since Danish collapsed masculine and feminine into one category. So technically a ship could at best be “gendered” grammatically rather than feminine. But it isn’t gendered and the ship is still a woman.
I genuinely believe the answer is that it’s a product of men owning them using them as a sort of status symbol. There is also a tradition of doing the same with guns (like a rifle named “Betsy” or whatever).
Very much one of those “I suspect so, but I can’t prove it” things