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Deadweight Tonnage (DWT)

Modern equivalent

Long tons of 2,240 lb, or metric tonnes of 2,204.6 lb

The total weight a vessel can carry when loaded to her deep-load line.

Deadweight is a weight, and one of only two figures in this family that is. It covers everything a ship takes aboard when fully laden to her marks: cargo, fuel, fresh water, stores, crew and passengers.

It is the figure that matters commercially for bulk shipping, because it answers the only question a charterer has. A tanker described as 300,000 deadweight can lift three hundred thousand tons of oil and the things needed to move it.

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