- published: 01 May 2016
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U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot [ˈuːboːt] ( listen), itself an abbreviation of "Unterseeboot," (meaning in English, "undersea boot"), and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II. Although in theory U-boats could have been useful fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, in practice they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role (commerce raiding), enforcing a naval blockade against enemy shipping. The primary targets of the U-boat campaigns in both wars were the merchant convoys bringing supplies from Canada, the British Empire and the United States to the islands of Great Britain. Austrian submarines of World War I (that is, before the country lost its coastline after the war) were also known as U-boats.
The distinction between U-boat and submarine is common in several languages, including English (where U-boat refers exclusively to the German vessels of the World Wars) but is unknown in German, in which the term U-Boot refers to any submarine.
A boat is a watercraft of any size designed to float or plane, to provide passage across water. Usually this water will be inland (lakes) or in protected coastal areas. However, boats such as the whaleboat were designed to be operated from a ship in an offshore environment. In naval terms, a boat is a vessel small enough to be carried aboard another vessel (a ship). Another less restrictive definition is a vessel that can be lifted out of the water. Strictly speaking and uniquely a submarine is a boat as defined by the Royal Navy[citation needed]. Some boats too large for the naval definition include the Great Lakes freighter, riverboat, narrowboat and ferryboat. The term armed boat, used primarily by English speaking naval forces, referred to any boat carrying either a cannon or armed occupants, such as marines[citation needed].
Boats have served as short-distance transportation since early times. Circumstantial evidence, such as the early settlement of Australia over 40,000 years ago, and findings in Crete dated 130,000 years ago, suggests that boats have been used since ancient times. The earliest boats have been predicted to be logboats. The oldest boats to be found by archaeological excavation are logboats from around 7,000–10,000 years ago. The oldest recovered boat in the world is the Pesse canoe; it is a dugout or hollowed tree trunk from a Pinus sylvestris. It was constructed somewhere between 8200 and 7600 B.C. This canoe is exhibited in the Drents Museum in Assen, Netherlands; other very old dugout boats have been recovered. A 7,000 year-old seagoing boat made from reeds and tar has been found in Kuwait.
I sit and wait for you cause' this was never over
I hear the talk in codes
If you want me then come get me
You want me so come get me
I'm standing with my allies
Sellin' arms to strangers
Watch them shoot ya down
There aint nothin' I will say to you
But I know your eyes are fearin'
I watch as you creep by
I'll find my way, wont let go
I'll find my way, wont let go
I'm standing with my allies
Sellin' guns to strangers