This well-established textbook has been fully reviewed and updated by a new author to ensure a modern coverage of the contents in depth. A new unique introduction has been written, giving ship types together with their general characteristics, to indicate to the reader actual or typical sizes of modern day merchant vessels.

Four new chapters have been added dealing with Ship Squat, the Deadweight scale, Interaction and The Trim and Stability book. A new section, on Draft Surveys, is included in the Appendices. In order to give the student a better understanding of ship strength, four smaller but more detailed chapters replace the chapter covering this subject area in the previous edition.

Ship Stability, with respect to motions, can be defined as the ability of a ship to return to an initial condition after she has been subjected to disturbing forces and moments. Ship Stability can also exist with respect to materials stresses and forces, where it is the ability to return to an initial state after being subjected to external or internal forces. Careful attention has been paid to the basic principles of ship stability and ship strength. Included is a generous provision of worked examples and exercise questions with answers. These ensure that the maritime student who works through this book will have a clear grasp of the topics covered. Up-to-date syllabuses and recent examination papers are included at the end of this book.