Why are ships called she in British maritime usage?

Is the British practice of calling a ship she inherited from Viking tradition?

One British explanation links feminine usage to a ship carrying life, but Russian and German conventions differ, so no single Viking-derived rule covers every maritime tradition.

One explanation offered for British usage is that a ship is feminine because she carries life. A proposed Viking origin raises the question of whether this convention was inherited from earlier maritime practice. Maritime gender traditions do not follow one simple inheritance: Russian usage can make ships masculine, while German practice follows its own conventions. The familiar English explanation therefore cannot serve as a universal naval rule.