Learn English – Technical term describing the weight of a ship

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There are plenty of terms for describing the size of a ship. However, most of them are either measures of cargo capacity, or measures of volume. To make things more confusing, most of the volume measures use weight-sounding names such as "ton".

If I were to pick up a ship and place it on a scale, what is the technical term I would use to describe the number I got? Given that seafaring has its own specialized vocabulary, I'm pretty sure I'd get laughed at if I said "the Seawise Giant weighs x million pounds".

Best Answer

There are two approaches with measuring the weight of a vehicle, one would be with variables such as fuel, hydraulics, coolants, lubricants, passengers etc (gross weight) and one would be without these (dry weight).

The free dictionary defines dry weight as:

Dry weight is the weight of a vehicle without any consumables, passengers, or cargo.

The free dictionary defines gross weight as:

Weight of a vehicle, fully equipped and serviced for operation, including the weight of the fuel, lubricants, coolant, vehicle tools and spares, crew, personal equipment, and load.

For ships in particular it gets a bit more complicated:

According to The Maritime Site there are 6 different ways giving the weight of a ship, which are:

  • Displacement Tonnage:

    Displacement Tonnage is the total weight of the volume of water a ship “displaces” when it is sitting in the water.

  • Standard Displacement Tonnage:

    Standard displacement is the total weight of the volume of water a ship “displaces” without the weight of any fuel and potable water carried on board the ship.

  • Deadweight Tonnage:

    Deadweight tonnage is the weight (in tons) of all the cargo, fuel, dry provisions, supplies, etc. carried on board the ship. (ie. "displacement tonnage" minus "lightweight tonnage")

  • Leightweight Tonnage:

    Lightweight tonnage is best described as the weight of the ship when it was built in the shipyard including all framing, machinery, decking, etc. However, lightweight tonnage does not include the weight of any consumable such as fuel, water, oil, or supplies.

  • Gross Registered Tonnage:

    Gross registered tonnage is a measurement of volume of all enclosed spaces on a ship with 100 cubic feet = to one ton. Gross Tonnage or “Gross Tons” is what you’ll see most often on official ship documents and certificates

  • Net Registered Tonnage:

    Net registered tonnage is also a measurement of volume however you only consider the volume of actual cargo storage areas when dividing the cubic volume in feet by 100 to get your “tonnage”. This includes any tanks, cargo holds, etc. that are normally used for transporting cargo.

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