In volume two of my memoir I write about working on commercial fishing vessels. One was called Sharon Marie #1 Do I use the word "the" in front of the boat name or not as in: "When I was hired as a crewman on the Sharon Marie #1, it was the first time I had to be the cook as well as perform deck duties." or... "When I was hired as a crewman on Sharon Marie #1, it was the first time I had to be the cook as well as perform deck duties."
This one. The other is occasionally used and not incorrect but this one sounds better. e.g. The sailor served on board HMS Furious before serving on the Titantic. You could omit "the" in front of Titanic and it would still be correct.
And on the second reference, the boat is always she, another convention from God knows where. "I sailed on the Victory. She was a good ship, but six months at sea was enough for me."
I stood upon the dock and admired her sleek curves and the roundness of her stern. I liked also the cut of her jib. She would no doubt be a smooth ride, and I could not wait to board her. As I had some time before my ship arrived, I saw no reason why I should not.
My editor says the style used by my publisher is to employ the word "the" before the name of the ship. Whatever her name is.
HMS (and USS) shouldn't be italicized. There's also no "the" in Titanic as its formal name is RMS Titanic. But, as you say, the use of "the" is still common and is kind of an optional thing most commonly done when referring to a specific ship, but it's by no means impossible that someone would purposely name a ship or boat with 'the' in its formal name.
When I was in the US Navy, in official writings, a ship was always referred to as "the USS Abraham Lincoln" or the carrier Abraham Lincoln. No italics. The Navy Times illustrates that. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=naval+times&sei=MMK3Z5z0GYvap84P_LXc2A8
I think that's one of the things where the usage of language has drifted. I see HMS and USS in italics all the time these days, and most grammarians wouldn't consider that a hill to die on.
Literally every Wikipedia page on a given ship italicizes only the name, though. If it wasn't the common practice, it would have been nipped in the bud a long time ago. And contrary to popular belief, Wikipedia articles are policed like crazy.
