Question

A ship had 27 containers of equal weight and some
additional weight. The total weight on the ship was
3.19.213 kg. Find out the weight of each container and
also the additional weight. (Hint: Divide the total weight
by the number of containers. Remainder is the additional
weight.)​

Answer 1

rior to the new requirements, SOLAS required that the shipper declare, prior to loading, the gross mass of the container and to ensure it matched the actual gross mass. However, there was no effective enforcement in most jurisdictions and no IMO requirement to verify actual weights. Evidence gathered by various States during inspection campaigns and from incidents also pointed to some large discrepancies. For example, in one high profile casualty involving structural failure of the ship, 660 containers were weighed and the total weight of 137 containers (20 per cent) was found to be 312 tonnes heavier than stated on the cargo manifest. In another casualty, involving capsize of a containership at the berth the investigating authority concluded that a significant factor was a mis-declaration of container weights by the shippers. It was discovered that the weight of 16 containers was undeclared by a total of 278 tonnes.

Quite apart from weight mis-declaration having an adverse effect on ship stability and structural strength, the loss of containers overboard has been a growing concern. Furthermore, a common factor in stack collapse cases is the exceeding of tier