The boat symbolizes vulnerability, as the title, “The Open Boat,” implies. The boat is “open” to danger and all that nature and fate can throw at the men on the craft. Since the boat is far from imposing, the size of the boat increases its precariousness. In the second paragraph, the narrator writes, “Many a man ought to have a bathtub larger than the Boat” (213). If the boat were mightier, perhaps the men would have more confidence; the confrontations of People Versus Nature and Survival Versus Fate and Powerlessness would not seem so lopsided.

The narrator also compares the dinghy to a “bucking broncho” and describes the craft as it “pranced and reared and plunged like an animal” (214). The jerky motions and the link to the animal reinforce the vulnerability of the people in the boat. The boat represents instability and unpredictability. The men don’t know what will happen to the vessel or their lives.

Conversely, the boat is also a home. As unsteady and weak as the boat appears, it gives the men a modicum of shelter and keeps them alive until three of the men make it safely to shore. The boat is where the men sleep and work together.