spaceboat n.

= spaceship n.; (sometimes specif.) a small spacecraft

Vehicles

  • 1928 E. Hamilton Crashing Suns in Weird Tales Aug. 194/1 page image Edmond Hamilton bibliography

    They had gone out to planet after planet, had conquered the strange atmospheres and bacteria and gravitations, until now the races of man held sway over all the sun’s eight wheeling worlds. And it was from this Earth, a thousand centuries before, that there had ventured out the first discoverers’ crude little space[-]boats, whose faulty gravity-screens and uncertain controls contrasted strangely with the mighty leviathans that flashed between the planets now.

  • 1931 R. Z. Gallun Atomic Fire in Amazing Stories Apr. 69/2 page image Raymond Z. Gallun bibliography

    A door at one end of the tubular chamber that housed the space-boat opened. In a moment the little craft glided gracefully out into the open.

  • 1936 R. Z. Gallun Saturn’s Ringmaster in Thrilling Wonder Stories Dec. 81/1 page image Raymond Z. Gallun bibliography

    Raff Orethon, strapped in the wrecked cabin of his spaceboat, was dimly aware of the words that clicked faintly in the etherphones of his oxygen helmet.

  • 1945 ‘M. Leinster’ Ethical Equations in Astounding Science-Fiction June 119 page image Murray Leinster bibliography

    Three minutes later the little spaceboat pulled out from the side of the cruiser. Designed for expeditionary work and tool-carrying rather than as an escapecraft, it was not inclosed. It would carry men in spacesuits, with their tools and weapons, and they could breathe from its tanks instead of from their suits, and use its power and so conserve their own.

  • 1952 P. Anderson Captive of Centaurianess in Planet Stories Mar. 24/1 page image Poul Anderson bibliography

    At a mere fraction of the velocity of light—Ray thought of the consequences of hitting a planet when going faster than light, and wished he hadn’t—the spaceboat moved around Alpha A.

  • 1955 J. Vance Meet Miss Universe in Fantastic Universe Mar. 7/2 page image Jack Vance bibliography

    An extremely wealthy man, he was serving as General Director at a salary of a dollar a year. He was an ardent sportsman; he owned his own space-boat; he enjoyed cooking and serving little dinners of viands imported from distant worlds.

  • 1968 A. E. van Vogt Proxy Intelligence in Worlds of If Oct. 75/2 page image A. E. van Vogt bibliography

    He opened his eyes to realize that he had slept. He realized something else. The screens were down; a Deegh in a spaceboat was coming into an airlock at the extreme lower side of the meteorite.

  • 1970 P. Anderson Circus of Hells (1979) xviii. 141 page image Poul Anderson bibliography

    A corvette would not go into such a tempest. Nothing except a weathership had any business in one; others could flit above or around readily enough. But a small spaceboat with a first-class pilot—a pilot who had begun his career in aircraft and aerial combat—could live in the fury. And detectors, straining from outside, would lose her.

  • 1980 B. Daley Han Solo and the Lost Legacy xiv. 152 page image Brian Daley bibliography

    The spaceboat, twin to the one that had been destroyed in the city by the lighter, made a quick preliminary pass at the ridge, its chin pods spitting. Antipersonnel rounds threw out clouds of flechettes; Han could feel the craft’s afterblast as it darted by. He raised his head to see what damage it had done.

  • 1990 R. Rankin Armageddon: The Musical (1991) xxiv. 179 page image Robert Rankin bibliography

    ‘Mr Shaman isn’t authorised to visit Earth.’ ‘No, sir.’ ‘Get me a spaceboat at once.’ ‘Mr Shaman said that you might require one. It’s all prepared on the top landing.’ ‘Thank you, Mavis.’ ‘Thank you, Mr Madoc.’

  • 2001 G. Dozois Preface in Worldmakers: SF Adventures in Terraforming x page image Gardner Dozois bibliography

    And although the dream of life on Mars has hung on even to the present day, in an increasingly more pallid and less hopeful form (now we’d be overjoyed to find lichens... or even fossil microbe evidence that there once had been life there, millions of years ago), it was obvious by the middle of the century that Dejah Thoris wasn’t going to be there to greet the boys when they stepped off the spaceboat.

  • 2008 G. Bear City at the End of Time lxx. 294 page image Greg Bear bibliography

    ‘They don’t have sails,’ Denbord observed. ‘They wouldn’t need them. They’re spaceboats. They travel across space—or they did, back when there was space to cross.’

  • 2015 J. C. Wright Architect of Aeons ii. 38 page image John C. Wright bibliography

    The clipper ship was large enough that even their fifty-foot-long, fifteen-foot-beam spaceboat was a small bundle dangled over the side.


Research requirements

antedating 1928

Earliest cite

Edmond Hamilton, in Weird Tales

Research History
Fred Galvin submitted a 1952 cite from Poul Anderson's "Captive of the Centaurianess".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1936 cite from Raymond Z. Gallun's "Saturn's Ringmaster".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1955 cite from Jack Vance's "Meet Miss Universe".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1950 cite from Fritz Leiber's "The Enchanted Forest".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1956 cite from Milton Lesser's "Meet Miss Solar System".
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1996 reprint of Raymond Z. Gallun's 1935 "Derelict"; Mike Christie verified it in the first publication in Astounding, 1935.
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1980 reprint of Murray Leinster's 1945 "The Ethical Equations"; Mike Christie verified it in the original .
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1960s reprint of Edmond Hamilton's "Crashing Suns"; Jesse Sheidlower verified this in the original publication (Weird Tales, August and September 1928)
Fred Galvin submitted a 1932 cite from Raymond Z. Gallun's "The Revolt of the Star Men".
Jesse Sheidlower submitted a 1931 cite from Raymond Gallun; there were still other Gallun cites available: he was apparently fond of this term.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 1968 cite from A. E. van Vogt.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 1970 cite from Poul Anderson.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 1980 cite from Brian Daley.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 1990 cite from Robert Rankin.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2001 cite from Gardner Dozois.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2008 cite from Greg Bear.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2015 cite from John C. Wright.
Fred Galvin submitted a 1928 cite from Edmond Hamilton.

Last modified 2023-11-11 14:47:54
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.