Meaning of なんぞ in this sentence

Question

I came across this sentence in ゼルダの伝説風のタクト:

世界広しと言えども
言葉を話す船なんぞというものは
ここにいる私だけだからなぁ
^{(Character is a talking boat)}

I know that なんぞ can be used in the same way as なんか, is that what it's doing here? And if so, what does it mean?

Is it something like, "I'm the only example of a boat that speaks"?

Answer 1

This なんぞ (and なぞ) is a dialectal/old variant of など or なんか. It's almost never used in modern standard Japanese, but characters like old men, craftsmen, and country folk often use it in fiction.

If 言葉を話す船などというもの still doesn't make sense to you, it's like saying "something like a talking boat" or "something called a talking boat" in English. This なんぞ/なんか/など is adding a sense of surprise.