Nautical Term: Draft, load
Definition of Draft, load
Draft refers to the depth of a vessel below the waterline at a specific load condition. This specific load condition is called the load displacement, which is the total weight of the vessel and its cargo.
For example, suppose a cargo ship weighs 10,000 metric tons when fully loaded with cargo. The ship’s own weight, without any cargo, is 5,000 metric tons. Therefore, the ship’s total weight at the load displacement condition is 15,000 metric tons (10,000 metric tons of cargo + 5,000 metric tons of the ship’s own weight).
To find the draft at the load displacement condition, we need to know the ship’s draft curves, which show how the draft changes as the load condition changes. These draft curves are typically plotted on graphs with the draft on the vertical axis and the load condition on the horizontal axis.
Assuming that we have access to the ship’s draft curves, we can determine the draft at the load displacement condition by finding the intersection point of the draft curve with the load displacement line on the graph
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