How to use Capacity Plan and Deadweight Scale?

Onboard every ship you must have been, I am sure you must have noticed a number of boxes containing numerous plans. And there are few plans which the Chief Mate, Chief Engineer or Master would keep on referring to time and again. One such plan is the Capacity plan and Deadweight Scale.

Capacity Plan onboard the vessel – as the name suggest – primarily shows the Capacities of various compartments onboard the vessel. However, the information is not just limited to the capacities, but also the general layout of the ship including the location of various cargo holds, fuel tanks, fresh water, ballast tanks and other service compartments such as slop/sewage tanks. The location of such compartments are clearly shown over a plan drawn to the scale. An important feature of the Capacity plan is the Loading Scale or Deadweight Scale. The following video shows the procedure for using the Capacity plan and how to obtain information from it. Using the Deadweight or Loading Scale has also been explained at length.

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The capacity plan, generally divided into the following sections –

1. General layout of the ship showing various compartments and their location.
2. Principal dimensions of the ship including the scale of the plan
3. Table showing various compartments on ship such as Cargo Holds/Cargo Tanks, Ballast Tanks, Diesel Oil tanks, Fuel oil Tanks, General Service tanks such as Slop/Sewage fresh water tanks and other compartments and spaces
4. Location of all compartments including frame numbers, the net volume of the compartment, their centers of gravity and the free surface moment associated with the compartment
5. Deadweight scale or the. Loading scale which is a very useful tool for the ship’s officer to determine values of Deadweight/Displacement/ MCTC / TPC directly from the draft and at various densities.

In the near future we shall be including various other plans, do tell us which one you want to know about.

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Fair seas and Bonn Voyage!