Deadweight tonnage

Not to be confused with vessel displacement.
The more heavily loaded a ship is, the lower it sits in the water. Maximum DWT is the amount of weight a ship can carry without riding dangerously low in the water.
Scale for a 6,000-tonne DWT ship

Deadweight tonnage (also known as deadweight; abbreviated to DWT, D.W.T., d.w.t., or dwt) or tons deadweight (DWT) is a measure of how much weight a ship can carry.[1][2][3] It is the sum of the weights of cargo, fuel, fresh water, ballast water, provisions, passengers, and crew.[1]

DWT is often used to specify a ship's maximum permissible deadweight (i.e. when it is fully loaded so that its Plimsoll line is at water level), although it may also denote the actual DWT of a ship not loaded to capacity.

  1. ^ a b Turpin, Edward A.; William A. McEwen (1980). Merchant Marine Officers' Handbook (4th ed.). Centreville, Maryland: Cornell Maritime Press. pp. 14–21. ISBN 0-87033-056-X.
  2. ^ Hayler, William B. (2003). American Merchant Seaman's Manual (7th ed.). Centreville, Maryland: Cornell Maritime Press. p. G-10. ISBN 0-87033-549-9.
  3. ^ Gilmer, Thomas C. (1975). Modern Ship Design (2nd ed.). Naval Institute Press. p. 25. ISBN 0-87021-388-1.