shouldn't it be "It was a large ship"?

Boats are often referred to with feminine pronouns, a relic of when English had noun genders. It is falling out of style, but still not uncommon.

A ship is usually referred to as "she" in English :)
Seamen regard it as a girl...

See here, for instance:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peoples...a3412171.shtml

Why "change"?

@Zifre, we posted our comments almost at the same time (so I didn't see your comment when I posted mine).

Actually, I didn't know that a ship (or a boat) was a "she" when English nouns had genders. I thought it's because sailors regard their boats as their girls/ladies.

I thought it was just a suggestion...
http://www.google.com.br/search...ient=firefox-a

Yes, Nero, I also thought it was neuter.

Hmmm... Maybe you are right. Maybe it's not from ship, but some other word (like "boat", although I believe that is masculine). Now that I look it up, it appears that no one really knows the exact explanation. :-)

The gender thing was what I learned from my very knowledgeable English teacher...

I agree with alexmarcelo. I think it's fine either way. We don't always need to use the most formal term for everything...

OK, thank you!