"otnmbrd" wrote
| Gross and net tonnage are volume tonnages and have nothing to do with
| weights.


My teacher told us way back in the old days of wind shipping they had
"tuns". These were like big barrels or casks. If ten could fit inside the cargo
hold the ship was a ten-tuner. Deck cargo didn't count. Later it got spelled "ton"
and that's were the confusion comes from. It started out being a volume thing.
If the tuns were filled with gold they'd be much heavier than filled with silk
cloth.


Cheers,
Ellen