Hi,
I've never done a ship myself, but a found a couple of links,
They seem quite simple,
http://dressingheidisage.blogspot.com/2011/02/pirate-ship-cake-tutorial.html
http://www.parenting.com/article/how-to-make-a-pirate-ship-cake
http://thecookduke.com/pirate-ship-cake/
Hope this helps, Good luck! 
Hi! Welcome to CC! I made a pirate ship last year so here's a couple of things that I did that may help you.
I cut out the cake board from foam core in the shape of the ship (I just free handed it but you may be able to find a template online) and then used that as a guide to carve each layer of cake.
I used a chocolate cake with ganache which really helped set it up well. I crumb coated it with ganache and cut out planks from modeling chocolate mixed with fondant. Although cutting the planks was a bit tedious it really made it simple to cover the cake, as opposed to trying to cover the cake with one large piece of fondant.
Good luck!
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