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Deadweight tonnage (also known asdeadweight; abbreviated toDWT,D.W.T.,d.w.t., ordwt) ortons deadweight (DWT) is a measure of how muchweight a ship can carry.[1][2][3] It is the sum of the weights ofcargo, fuel,fresh water,ballast water, provisions, passengers, andcrew.[1]
DWT is often used to specify a ship's maximum permissible deadweight (i.e. when it is fully loaded so that itsPlimsoll line is at water level), although it may also denote the actual DWT of a ship not loaded to capacity.
Deadweight tonnage is a measure of a vessel's weight carrying capacity, not including the empty weight of the ship. It is distinct from thedisplacement (weight of water displaced), which includes the ship's own weight, or the volumetric measures ofgross tonnage ornet tonnage (and the legacy measuresgross register tonnage andnet register tonnage).
Deadweight tonnage was historically expressed inlong tons,[a] but is now usually given internationally intonnes (metric tons).[4] In modern international shipping conventions such as theInternational Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea and theInternational Convention for the Prevention of Pollution From Ships, deadweight is explicitly defined as the difference in tonnes between the displacement of a ship in water of aspecific gravity of 1.025 (corresponding to average density ofsea water of 1,025 kg/m3 or 1,728 lb/cu yd) at thedraft corresponding to the assignedsummer freeboard and thelight displacement (lightweight) of the ship.[5][6]
