Ships’ hulls have all sorts of things on them – paint, rust, barnacles, seaweed, and a curious set of painted lines just above the water-line. Since 1876, merchant ships all over the world have carried this mark. It is called the Plimsoll line, after Samuel Plimsoll, a British politician who campaigned for greater safety at sea.
The Plimsoll line appears on both sides of a ship’s hull. Samuel Plimsoll intended it as a safety line. It shows the level to which the ship can safely be loaded at different times of the year and in different parts of the world.
The original Plimsoll line was a line drawn horizontally through a circle. This is still used and carries the initials LR. These stand for Lloyd’s Register, the international organization that controls merchant shipping. Beside it are six vertical lines marked with safe loading levels in water of different densities. TF stands for tropical fresh water; F for fresh water; T for tropical; S for summer; W for winter and WNA for winter North Atlantic.
Picture Credit : Google
