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On 11 Jan 2005 09:55:37 -0800, wrote:

I used 7700 lbs of water because that is the empty displacement of my
boat.
The captain of the sinking vessel knew what displacement meant and
about concepts of buoyancy.

I suspect that perhaps the captain didn't fully understand the
concepts of displacement and bouyancy. An empty hull will displace its
own weight in seawater. Its ability to take on water without sinking
depends on the hull volume, which is related to the registry tonnage
through a complicated collection of rules that probably vary from
authority to authority.

For example, my boat displaces about 12000 lbs and has a net registry
tonnage of 9.45 tons. It also has a waterline "footprint" of about 200
square feet, so adding 12000 lbs of water would raise the waterline by
rather less than a foot, and I have much more freeboard than that.

Ryk