container ships, maybe a stupid question.

[John Cassels]

Tony if she were light ship or lightly loaded then she would have a higher freeboard and would tend to ride the waves thereby having a tendency not to take a lot of green seas with which the pumps could cope. The Derbyshire, a loaded bulk carrier with virtually no freeboard would plough through the waves and swell and ship a lot of green seas. Some of the top wing tanks at the side of the cellular holds of a container ship would remain empty giving her what is known as 'reserve buoyancy'

You are mixing things up here a little Ivan.

reserve buoyancy is the name given to ANY watertight space above the waterline and in fact if a container ship tends to
be stiff in any way then top wing tanks will be filled ( as opposed to keeping them empty ) in order to reduce the
righting lever.

[Ivan Cloherty]

You are mixing things up here a little Ivan.

reserve buoyancy is the name given to ANY watertight space above the waterline and in fact if a container ship tends to
be stiff in any way then top wing tanks will be filled ( as opposed to keeping them empty ) in order to reduce the
righting lever.

I understand ALL of that John, I was trying to place it in a layman's terms rather than go into technicalities which probably have no intimate interest to those not in the deck department, but without being disrespectful to them, as I felt sure, rightly or wrongly, that they would have no particular interest in stiff/tender, righting moments. heeling moments, centres of gravity, centres of buoyancy etc etc. which would take a lot more explaining and wouldn't really have answered the question/query raised to which my answer was addressed, but I understand where you are coming from.

[Tony Wilding]

thanks for all replies, while not an expert on the technical information, i have learned a lot on questions asked on earlier posts, fond it all very helpful, to be honest i have been very suprised at the complexities of loading and discharging ships, especially the monsters of today, the question of stiff or tender ships has come up befor, one question was about free water in the hold and how it effects stability, had personal experience of that, but on a very small scale with a wooden dinghy that leaked bad on launching, used to have to try and row to my boat befor it submerged, and scared to move, as it all ran to one side and tried to capsize