TONNAGE OF SHIPS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1918, Page 7

TONNAGE OF SHIPS.

THE TERM EXPLAINED. It will have been noticed that American shipbuilders always calculate their output in deadweight tons—it makes the results look bigger—while the British use gross tons. The differences, are dead tonnage which can be piled oil to can:— . To many who are not experienced with the ways of ships and ship-men, tlie various uses of the term tonnage in' relation to the size of a snip are confusing in the last degree. There are :: ,four kinds of tonnage in use in shipping-cir-cles, and they all mean somethingcontrary to the land-lubber's .impression —-but they all mean something dift'e^nfi. Deadweight tonnage is what .the vessel actually can carry in tong. of',Jsayy cargo, plus stores and bunker Gross tonnage is based on the culjvc contents of the hull, with certain" arbitrary spaces, deducted, accordingly' it has little bearing upon the cargorc'afVyiing capacity. Net registered 'li gross tonnage with further 011 account of crew space and 'ffiafflffttery space, and again has little the dead-weight figures. Finely, the displacement is the total weight of Ili£ vessel when full of cargo, and ac:ording|ly represents the weight of her hull p'lu| her deadweight tonnage. tfieag" twj) items can at least be made'to h'ppeair reasonable to the most hopelessly ntintechnical mind by thinking of- the hull — the- ship herself —as live tonnage; list placement is then live tonnage phis th<> dead tonnage, which can be piled,into the vessel. v . J In round numbers a ship of 0000' t'mi:deadweight would have a gross tonnage of 5000 and a net registered tonnage of 3000; she wotild displace 12,000 tons of water when fully loaded, eo that figure J represents her displacement.