Is this called "ship trail"?

[alpacinou]

Is this called "ship trail"?



Is this okay?

She gazed out at the sea, her eyes focused on a ship trail streaking the placid water.

 

[Peedeebee]

I know something about boats; it's called a wake. And the waves that make other boats bob about when a bigger one goes past; that's calle the wash.
But where is your quote from? Are you writing it?

 

[Tarheel]

@alpacinou likes to try new things to see how they work.

Yes, that wave a ship leaves behind it is called a wake.

 

[probus]

Further to @Peedeebee's response, no, it is never called a ship trail.

 

[sadra1400]

1) Ship swell
2) Ocean wave(s)


-------------------
not a teacher.
not a native speaker.

 

[alpacinou]

Is what I wrote okay?

She gazed out at the sea, her eyes focused on a ship's wake streaking the placid water.

 

[tedmc]

A ship streaks, not its wake.

 

[emsr2d2]

However, you could say "... focused on the streak of a ship's wake".

 

[alpacinou]

However, you could say "... focused on the streak of a ship's wake".

Is this okay?

She gazed out at the sea, her eyes focused on the streak of a ship's wake on the placid water.

 

[Skrej]

She gazed out at the sea, her eyes focused on a ship's wake streaking the placid water.

I see nothing wrong with this version.

 

[Peedeebee]

If you want to be really pedantic, "swell" is the movement of the sea, generally that remaining from rougher waves far away. Waves are.. well, just waves, caused by the wind, of no particular size. Waves may be breaking, (white horses) or breaking near the shore, (surf), but the wake of a boat is not really a wave. It's the visible turbulence left behind.
A boat leaves a bow wave and a stern wave. These are not really the wake, and may well not show as a streak.
So, in British English, there is not really a "ship swell". On the west of Britain we would refer to "an Atlantic swell" indicating that the motion originated distantly, in the ocean. (In Britain, the ocean is far away. The sea is what you see from the beach.)

And, what is a ship, and what is a boat? that's probably one for a different forum.