What is the weight of the boat excluding fuel, water, outfit, cargo and crew?

• A. Loaded displacement
• B. Light displacement
• C. Gross ton
• D. Dead weight

Answer: (B)

The weight being asked for is the ship’s light displacement. This is the ship’s weight with all permanent structure and equipment included, but without any consumables or payload—no fuel, no water, no stores, no cargo, and no crew. It represents the base weight of the vessel itself. Understanding this helps you see how much weight can still be added as deadweight (fuel, water, stores, crew, cargo) before reaching the loaded displacement, which is heavier because it includes those items. Gross tonnage is a measure of internal volume, not weight, and deadweight is the difference between loaded displacement and light displacement, i.e., how much cargo and other items the ship can carry.