126. RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR FREEBOARD. 
in the modern “‘shelter deck with freeboard” vessel, in which the scantlings are 
somewhat less than full scantling classification requirements, and the granting 
of the minimum freeboard to this type can be justified only because of the lower 
standard of strength allowed by the freeboard regulations. 
Except that explanatory notes were added in later editions in order to insure 
a uniform method of calculating freeboards on the part of the assigning bodies, 
no major changes were made until 1898, when the tables were extended to include 
vessels of 50 feet moulded depth, as shown in Fig. 3, Plate 57. Methods of deter- 
mining the freeboards of special types, such as turret deck and shelter deck vessels, 
were added to the regulations at this time, and modifications were also made in 
the freeboards of vessels engaged in the winter North Atlantic trade. 
As the publication in 1903 by the German Marine Association of freeboard 
rules which differed appreciably from the British regulations strengthened the 
hands of those who had been urging a further revision of the British tables, it may 
be desirable at this stage to draw attention to the departures made from existing 
British practice. Before the advent of load line legislation in Germany, a large 
number of German vessels had freeboards assigned by one or the other of the 
British assigning bodies, but in 1900 the German Marine Association, having decided 
that some control over the loading of vessels was desirable, issued instructions to 
owners to report the draught of their seagoing vessels on each voyage, together 
with the amount, nature and stowage of cargo carried. The results of this investi- 
gation were submitted to the Germanischer Lloyd’s, and in 1903 the freeboard 
rules proposed by that classification society, as amended in conference with repre- 
sentatives of the shipping and shipbuilding interests, were finally adopted and 
received the approval of the German government in 1904. 
The German freeboard tables were, in effect, the British tables improved 
and modified to suit the changes which had taken place in types and construction 
of vessels since 1885. The German rules contained tables of freeboards for both 
full scantling steamers and sailers, also for awning deck vessels, but no separate 
table was given for spar deck vessels. The depth used with the tables was meas- 
ured to the top of the deck, whether of wood or steel, and the table freeboards 
were given from the top of the deck to the center of the disc, 2. e., summer freeboards 
instead of winter freeboards as in the British regulations. As considerable im- 
provement had taken place in the distribution of material with a corresponding 
increase in the strength of vessels with complete superstructures, the reduction in 
freeboards granted by the German tables to vessels of the awning deck type was 
justified on that account. The new German sheer standard, which was considerably 
above that of the British tables, was also more in line with modern practice. Fig. 7, 
Plate 61, shows the comparative sheers in the case of a 400-foot vessel. 
While in the British tables no correction is made for excess or deficiency of 
sheer in the case of awning or spar deck vessels, awning deck vessels in the German 
tables received an allowance for excess of sheer over the standard and were penalized 
for deficiency of sheer in the same way as for flush deck vessels. Detailed instruc- 
tions were given for the method to be adopted in assigning freeboards on the basis 
