Deadweight tonnage - Citizendia

As weight is added to a ship, it submerges. Maximum DWT is the amount of weight a ship can carry without riding dangerously low in the water.

Deadweight tonnage (also known as deadweight and variously abbreviated as DWT, D. W. T. , d. w. t. , or dwt) is a measure of how much mass or weight of cargo or burden a ship can safely carry. Mass is a fundamental concept in Physics, roughly corresponding to the Intuitive idea of how much Matter there is in an object In the Physical sciences weight is a Measurement of the gravitational Force acting on an object ^[1]^[2]^[3] Deadweight tonnage was historically expressed in long tons^[4] but is now largely replaced internationally by tonnes. This article is about the tonne or metric ton For other tons see Ton. ^[5] Deadweight tonnage is not a measure of the ship's displacement and should not be confused with terms such as gross register tonnage, net tonnage, or displacement. Gross Register Tonnage (abbreviated variously as GRT, grt, gr Tonnage is a measure of the size or Cargo capacity of a Ship. A ship's displacement is its mass at any given time generally expressed in metric tons or Long tons The term is often used to mean the ship's mass when it is loaded

Scale for a 6000 tonne DWT ship

Deadweight tonnage at any given time is defined as the sum of the weights or masses of cargo, fuel, fresh water, ballast water, provisions, passengers and crew. ^[1]

The term is often used to denote maximum deadweight tonnage. This is the deadweight tonnage when the ship is fully loaded, such that its Plimsoll line is at the point of submersion. Waterline refers to an imaginary line marking the level at which Ship or Boat floats in the Water.

Notes

^ ^a ^b Turpin and McEwen (1980), pages 14-21.
^ Hayler and McKeever (2004) page G-10.
^ Gilmer (1975) page 25.
^ One long ton is 2240 pounds (1016. 0469088 kg exactly).
^ In US law the tonne is refered to as a metric ton.

References

Hayler, William B. (2003). American Merchant Seaman's Manual. Cornell Maritime Press. ISBN 0-87033-549-9.
Gilmer, Thomas C. (1975). Modern Ship Design. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-399-1.
Turpin, Edward A. ; McEwen, William A. (1980). Merchant Marine Officers' Handbook, 4th, Centreville, Maryland: Cornell Maritime Press. ISBN 0-87038-056-X.

Notes

References

See also