Timber Freighter

a ship designed to carry logs and lumber in holds and on the upper deck. Timber may be shipped in bulk, in piece-by-piece packaging, or in crates. At first, ordinary ships were used to transport lumber, and timber freighters did not appear until the early 20th century in Russia and later in Germany and other countries. The additional buoyancy of a properly secured on-deck timber load (up to one-third of the entire cargo) makes it possible to use a 3–5 percent greater draft (the timber loading mark) on timber freighters than on vessels of other design with the same dimensions.

Timber freighters generally are single-deck ships with a reinforced upper deck, chute gates, and a bulwark. The carrying capacity of modern timber freighters is 10,000-35,000 tons. The seasonal nature of shipments of timber cargoes—owing to the fact that primary timber resources are located in specific (chiefly northern) regions of the earth—makes it necessary to adapt timber freighters for the transport of other freight, usually bulk cargoes (grain-timber freighters) or container cargoes (container-timber freighters).