So I know it is commonly referred to as the Gem Warship and it is Officially known as the Hand Ship, but what if it was a prison barge or cargo craft instead?

The ship is filled to the brim with holding cells and large, open areas. Without the destabilzation fields over the cells, you could get away with storing large amounts of bulk cargo or goods in them.

The main weapon of the craft is woefully under-powered. Despite firing twice, it only manages to bury Garnet in the sand. Wouldn’t a “warship” have some meatier guns on it? Along those lines, doesn’t resemble the colony ships from “Friend Ship” at all. Those ships we’re arguably much better armed than the Hand Ship; Peridot was able to do a lot more damage to the Crystal Gems in that thing which was over 5000 years old in comparison to the Hand Ship.

It makes sense that it would be filled with gem destabilizers and holding cells if Peridot needed to “collect” any of the artificial forced-fusions. Her mission was tied to these forced-fusions, as she conbstantly goes out of the way to remind us. And being a modified cargo craft better suits the tactile motif of the hand rather then something more warlike, like a dagger or sword shaped craft.