Back in the business I would sometimes get orders to take a 'full load'.
That meant stuff as much cargo into the boat as we safely could.
I had broken out a new vessel and was at the shipyard with my relief and over a quick lunch the subject came up and my relief and I came up with what we considered a SAFE full load.
If I recall, it was 95% of what the tanks could actually hold. We did this to allow for cargo expansion. Like most things, oil expands when it is heated.
About a year later my relief took anther position and was replaced by an idiot hillbilly.
When they gave him orders to take a full load he stuffed it to about 99+% even after I had explained to him how things worked. He just had to outdo everyone else and I got questioned once about why he was able to get more cargo on board.
"Because I'm not stupid," I explained and reminded them that cargo can expand and when it does one has to find a place to put it. Furthermore I said the idiot should be busted to second man. They stared at me and then made a phone call to my former relief who was considered a company hotshot.
He agreed with me and told them that when we broke the boat out we had discussed it and in no circumstances would we go over 95% capacity.
They didn't bust my new relief but he got a monumental ass blistering and was told never to load more than 95% of capacity.
Early on I had heard a story from a shipmate that had been ordered to stuff his boat with as much jet fuel as he could cram on. They loaded during a July cold snap and got delayed en route as a heat wave came rolling in.
The cargo expanded and fortunately they were paying attention. As the cargo expanded they called the office of their company (he was working for someone else at the time and they had to get someone to come alongside and pump off some of their cargo lest it go over the top of the tank domes and onto deck and then over the side.
This is a case of learning from someone else's problems and how they solved it.
My advice is to always listen to old salts that have an interesting story to tell. You can learn something and not make the same mistakes they did.
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