144 RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR FREEBOARD. 
Vessels navigating sheltered and inland waters can safely load much deeper than 
vessels at sea or on large sheets of exposed waters; this, too, is recognized to such an 
extent that freeboard regulations do not appear to be needed for such vessels; in general, 
all they need is enough freeboard to protect them from the wash of passing craft and 
the smallest orders of waves. On account of absence of wave motion of any magnitude, 
their longitudinal stresses are easy; but for the ordinary rough and tumble work of any 
large harbor they need some reserve buoyancy. 
Overloaded ships are subject to the following dangers-—Loss and injury of crew, 
structural straining and damage, deck and hatch damage, general bad seagoing qualities, 
smaller chance of surviving accident, cargo damage and loss. 
Thereisundoubtedly a feeling in some quarters that youcannot overload a steelsteamer. 
It is true that you can load deeply and get safely through voyage after voyage with 
good luck as to not meeting seas heavy enough to break the ship, but, taking the sit- 
uation as a whole, you are in the long run going to be met with higher and higher insur- 
ance rates to cover deck and cargo damages. It then becomes a question of compromise 
between the contending claims. Suitable freeboard is part of this compromise, 
other points being strength of structure and details proportioned to such loading and 
enough power to cope with heavy weather; a vessel must have enough reserve buoyancy 
to ride the seas without taking undue quantities of water on deck. Just what is the 
proper point at which to stop loading a vessel is not an easy question to answer. Expe- 
rience has taught usa great deal. We have seen also changes in rules to meet the com- 
petition and easier rules of rival nations, until now the seagoing brotherhood, which 
includes designers, builders, repairers, owners, operators, underwriters and crews, are 
in a position to draw conclusions based on both theory and practice, a combination that 
is very hard to beat. 
As an indication of what effect increase in draught will have on stresses, a large tanker 
laid down for 27 feet has been taken as an example, starting at 26 feet and increasing by 
2-foot increments to 32 feet. The other factors affected vary as follows:— 
Column A, 
Actual draught draught Column B Column C 
2OHECE Ave crs taney I00.0 100.0 100.0 
Pie) STSLR Ala totaal) bile crea 60 107.7 107.7 ENA BE 
BO LECH ICS Mn) rade I15.4 115.4 124.50 
Biaiicaby (ives ee isha aearws 123.1 123.1 137.15 
Column B gives values for maximum bending moment; also maximum stress in top- 
sides, with constant section modulus. 
Column C gives increases in deadweight. 
It is seen that stress goes up directly as draught but that deadweight increases faster. 
The vessel showed a designed maximum stress of 15,500 pounds per square inch com- 
pression on deck at 27 feet draught; loading to 30 feet increased this to 17,250 pounds. 
Even though theoretical stresses are seldom met with in actual service, there is a dis- 
tinct warning that seaways calculated to find the weak spots will much oftener be met 
with at 30 feet draught than at 27 feet. 
A question was asked during the discussion of Mr. Norton’s paper yesterday as to 
the ‘‘why” of the straight sheer shown for that vessel. The manufacturing advantage 
was pointed out by the author, but the further structural advantage was not made as 
