http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spacetitanicspf0.jpg
[[caption-width:250:[[http://community.livejournal.com/doctorwhy/70795.html Not the regular Titanic, but three of the several spaceship ones.]]]]

As has been established, SpaceIsAnOcean, and in fiction, naval and maritime terms are often applied to spaceships. Some works, however, take things further, and make their characters go SpaceSailing on literal ships [[RecycledINSPACE IN SPACE]]! The reason for this? The RuleOfCool, and nothing else.

While, in RealLife, there are proposals for spacecraft with solar sails, this isn't TruthInTelevision, because they'd still be just spacecraft-with-sails; these are literal ''boats'' in space, with all the shape and features that implies.

A subtrope of this is the idea of a space Titanic, an oddly common meme.

Interestingly, they don't go after {{Space Whale}}s as often as you might think. They are quite likely to house SpacePirates, though.
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!!Examples:

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[[folder: Anime ]]

*Particularly abundant in the Leijiverse--the anachronistic vehicles are partially what give the shows their charm.
** ''UchuuSenkanYamato'' takes place aboard a risen-from-the seas and retrofitted-for-space WorldWarII battleship Yamato.
** ''CaptainHarlock'' has both SpaceSailing and Space Trains!
***Not only does ''Arcadia'' appear to have the back-end of a galley, she can effectively function as a submarine.
* The SoBadItsHorrible anime ''Odin: Photon Space Sailor Starlight'' begins with a scene showing lots of futuristic ships plying the spaceways -- then brings on its master stroke, a new, better space ship, which is... a wooden sailing ship, complete with decks and rigging and masts and such.
* ''SpaceCarrierBlueNoah'', AKA ''Thundersub''.
* The Hyper Galaxy Dai-Gurren from ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' looks much like a ''HUGE'' aircraft carrier.
* Had TOEIAnimation accepted the Toon Makers bid for [[{{Americanitis}} remaking]] ''SailorMoon'' (in the infamous "Saban Moon"), instead of {{DiC}}'s dubbing, Americans would have gotten the Sailor Senshi battling evil by going sailing in space... on space-windsurfers... involving fights with such ships. Let us all be glad it was scrapped for an anime {{Macekre}}, for once.
* ''SolBianca'' revolves around a space "submarine", which "dives" and "surfaces" to enter and leave its cloaking effect.

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[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Fairwind This]] article is about a ''wooden-hulled'' starship from a ''StarWars'' comic.

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[[folder: Film ]]

* [[DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney's]] ''{{Treasure Planet}}'' takes this to the extreme, with a 70/30 blend of 18th century ships combined with technology. It works quite well.
* ''{{WALL-E}}'' featured the Axiom, a "Starliner" with a design evoking that of a sea-going cruise ship.
* The Fhloston Paradise hotel in ''TheFifthElement'' actually does double as both a space and sea vessel. The steamstacks, however, may be just for show.
* There is a B-Movie called ''Message From Space'', which has this very thing, but takes it to the extreme. These space sailers are wooden Renaissance-era ships! Oh, and it also includes HumongousMecha, PlanetLooters, SpacePirates, and even a planet with ''rocket engines''!

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[[folder: Literature ]]

* In JohnRingo and Travis S. Taylor's ''IntoTheLookingGlass'' series, the Human-Adar Alliance's first warp ship is a converted Ohio class ballistic missile submarine. The Adar, upon learning the origin of some of the terms used in the first book of the series (''Into The Looking Glass''), decide the ship ''must'' be named the Alliance Space Ship Vorpal Blade, much to the chagrin of all the humans who know about it.
* In Philip Reeve's ''Larklight'' novels, the [[RecycledINSPACE star]] [[SteamPunk ships]] are nothing more than Victorian sailing vessels with [[MagiTek alchemical]] engines.

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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''DoctorWho'' has not only the new series ChristmasEpisode "The Voyage of the Damned", one of the aforementioned Space Titanics, but also the 1983 Fifth Doctor serial "Enlightenment", where he and his companions find themselves on board a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Edwardian ship in space, powered via solar sails, which is participating in a race around the planets.
** With other such ships from different periods from human history, including a Greek trireme...with rowers.
** And a scene or two where the Doctor and companions went for a stroll on the deck.
*** All justifiable (perhaps) in that the crews of said ships were basically hyper-advanced aliens who were playing at a game (albeit one with major stakes) - in essence, they could afford to waste the time, effort, energy, and technology necessarily to make such ridiculous ships possible (and even effective) solely to fulfill their own sense of the RuleOfCool. Basically, they're the ultra-high tech future version of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Creative_Anachronism SCA]].
* A female character had such a ship in ''MessageFromSpace: Galactic Battle'' (this editor doesn't know her English name).
* ''StarFleet'' gives us the Skull, a space going pirate ship complete with sails.

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[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* This was the whole point of the ''DungeonsAndDragons'' {{Spelljammer}} setting. In this case, it wasn't interstellar space so much as inter''[[AnotherDimension planar]]'' space.
** Also somewhat [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that the whole thing is done by [[AWizardDidIt magic]].
* The Eldar of ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'''s ships use solar sails for propulsion... which means that if you play as them in the space combat spin-off, ''BattlefleetGothic'', you'll have to keep track of which side of the table is sunward and adjust your movement rates accordingly.
* ''{{GURPS}}'': Spaceships discusses solar sails. You can even give space boats wooden hulls if the setting demands it or the characters are incredibly desperate.

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[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* The "Oceans Unmoving" storyline in ''SluggyFreelance''. This one wasn't space either, but flying sailing ships in a place outside time itself, which sailed above the frozen oceans of the title.
** This one was an interesting variation in that, although the ships' hulls looked like those of sailing ships, they could have masts ''on the bottom'' as well with additional sails.
* ''[[http://www.webcomicsnation.com/cousinted/oits/series.php Oceans in the Sky]]'' features, very prominently, a sailing ship capable of space travel as a plot point.

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

* The DouglasAdams game/novel ''StarshipTitanic'', one of the aforementioned Space Titanics. This particular ship also got a mention in ''[[HitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy Life, The Universe, And Everything]]''.
* The {{RPG}} ''RogueGalaxy''.
* The airships in ''[[SuperMarioBros Super Mario Galaxy]]''? Usually found in the sky, the game has Bowser's airship fleet flying through space in quite a few of the levels, notably Bowser Jr's Airship Armada.

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''{{Futurama}}'', the Space Titanic episode "A Flight to Remember". Also, a Dark Matter Tanker appears in "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz" and a Pirate ship at the beginning of "Godfellas".
*''DuckDodgers'' featured a spaceship designed to look like an eighteenth-century [[SpacePirates pirate ship]] assaulting a spaceship designed to look like a nineteenth-century cruise liner. Also, the Klunkian ([[AlternateCompanyEquivalent not Klingon]]) warship resembles a Viking longship, complete with oars.
* {{codename kids next door}} had this when the candy pirates "modified" their ship for space travel (modifications consisted of and air bubble...thing and engines
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