How was 19th century ship tonnage reported?
Upvote:4
The figure means that the tonnage of the ship had been calculated to be 1050 and 75/95ths of a ton.
This came from what is known as the Builder's Old Measurement method of calculating the tonnage of a ship based on the length and maximum beam of the vessel. The method was widely used from the mid-17th century to the mid-19th century.
The version of the formula that I learned when I studied the subject is the one contained on the Wikipedia page:
The calculated value is expressed in "tons burden". In Early Modern English this would be written as "tons burthen", and in Middle English as "tons byrthen".
You'll notice that this formula would give a result in 94ths of a ton. This was the version of the calculation used in the UK. I was also confused when I first saw values quoted in 95ths of a ton in documents.
The Builder's Old Measurement system was adopted for use in the United States under An Act for Registering and Clearing Vessels, Regulating the Coasting Trade, and for other purposes, passed in September 1789, but the denominator in the formula was changed to 95:
"... to ascertain the tonnage of all ships or vessels, the surveyor or other person appointed by the collector to measure the same, shall take the length of every vessel, if double decked, from the fore part of the main stem to the after part of the stern post above the upper deck, the breadth at the broadest part above the main wales, and half such breadth shall be accounted the depth of every double decked vessel; he shall then deduct from the length three fifths of the breadth, multiply the remainder by the breadth, and the product by the depth, dividing the product of the whole by ninety-five"
There were also some differences in the way that length and breadth were measured. The result being that the calculated tonnage for a given vessel was lower when calculated using the American system.
More post
- 📝 Do NKVD files say that during WWII, Soviet leadership knew about the rape of Soviet women liberated from labour camps and did nothing to stop it?
- 📝 How did Western leaders justify NATO's eastwards expansion after promising the Soviet leadership it won't happen?
- 📝 How many unarmed did Che Guevara kill personally or by order?
- 📝 Was there any official affirmation from the US government that they would win the Vietnam War?
- 📝 How were the earliest automatic traffic lights automated?
- 📝 What was a "Teuctli" in Mesoamerican history
- 📝 What's the earliest example of a permanent embassy?
- 📝 Where was Arielis?
- 📝 Accidental wars
- 📝 Moving day in Paris, France in the 19th century
- 📝 Why was there an autumn recess in Britain in 1641?
- 📝 Which 1848 German revolutionaries became key players in the US Republican party?
- 📝 19th century cabins: why were beds off the ground? Or weren't they?
- 📝 Adolf Hitler's DNA samples and the consequences
- 📝 Why didn't Zheng He colonize the countries he explored like what the Europeans did to the New World?
- 📝 Did other countries stop recognizing Austria, after the German annexation?
- 📝 How a kingdom or an empire formed?
- 📝 When & what are the first recorded peacetime uses of soldiers?
- 📝 What was the outcome of the first tank battle?
- 📝 How did the development of unbreakable and asymmetric encryption change warfare?
- 📝 Why did Bavaria join Prussia/Germany instead of Austria?
- 📝 When & where were three masted ships invented?
- 📝 What was the cost of buying Silk in the Roman Empire
- 📝 Ideological differences between Mensheviks and Bolsheviks
- 📝 What is the oldest regulation in the world regarding a head of state?
- 📝 Are there ancient Greek historians who wrote about Mycenae?
- 📝 How did the ancestors of proto-Malagasy in South Borneo reach Madagascar?
- 📝 Was the Gulf War 1990 a complete surprise, or was a military build up evident?
- 📝 Where can I find a world map from the Victorian period?
- 📝 Is this a French uniform, and what is the time period?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How was 19th century ship tonnage reported?
- 📝 How common was banditry in 16th & 17th century Great Britain and Ireland?
- 📝 How was the linen weaving trade learnt in 18th century Scotland?
- 📝 How were 19th century American diplomats paid?
- 📝 How did they measure speed in the 19th century so they could issue the first speeding ticket?
- 📝 How common was it for Americans to visit Europe in the late 19th century?
- 📝 Where and how did scientists of the 18th and 19th century learn foreign languages?
- 📝 How was library classification done in English-speaking libraries prior to the 19th century?
- 📝 Was the enclosure responsible for the supply of factory workers in 18th and 19th Century England?
- 📝 What was the typical range of travel of a Pennsylvanian resident for everyday life in the late 18th early 19th Century Pennsylvania?
- 📝 How did people 'park' their horse and buggy in early 20th century cities? How was theft prevented?
- 📝 How were ethnographic maps in the 19th century made?
- 📝 How was 'the right to bear arms' understood in 17th-18th century England?
- 📝 How did 19th century politicians discredit rivals?
- 📝 Was the Times of London available for sale in 19th century Singapore?
- 📝 How did one get accepted into university in 19th century England?
- 📝 How did 19th century European nations arbitrate the process of colonization among themselves?
- 📝 How accurate was rocket artillery in the 18th and 19th centuries?
- 📝 In what sense was marriage in 19th century Europe "expensive"?
- 📝 How often were slaves raised by their parents in 19th century USA?
- 📝 What was the difference between Hussars and Chasseurs à Cheval in the 19th Century French army?
- 📝 How much was cost for a regular (standard class) passenger to come on passenger ship from Liverpool England to Canada between 1906-1908
- 📝 How would 19th century Janissaries remedy the Ottoman empire?
- 📝 Was the Tsar's property separated from state property in Russian Empire in early 19th century (regarding land)?
- 📝 How was law enforcement handled in large US cities before professional police?
- 📝 How was Germany able to hold itself together, while Austria-Hungary could not?
- 📝 How serious was Fermat's statement about the ancients?
- 📝 In 19th century France, were police able to send people to jail without a trial, as presented in "Les Misérables"?
- 📝 How and when was the modern company ownership structure invented?
- 📝 How was the United States able to produce excellent tanks in 1942?