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TOEIC Link Vocabulary Cluster — Draft Survey: The Report Lexicon for Determining Bulk Cargo Weight by Displacement

A draft survey determines the weight of a bulk cargo not by weighing it but by reading how deep the ship sits in the water before and after loading — a displacement calculation wrapped in a fixed, report-shaped lexicon of draft marks, hydrometer density, deductibles, and ballast correction that recurs across TOEIC Link marine and logistics reading passages. This cluster isolates the 40-plus terms a marine surveyor deploys across an initial and final survey and maps each to its register tier and native collocation.

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TOEIC Link Vocabulary Cluster — Draft Survey: The Report Lexicon for Determining Bulk Cargo Weight by Displacement

A shipload of coal, grain, or iron ore is never put on a scale. Its weight is inferred from how much water the vessel displaces — read the ship's draft before loading, read it again after, correct both figures for the density of the water and for everything aboard that is not cargo, and the difference is the cargo weight. That indirect, arithmetic-heavy method — the draft survey — is one of the most report-dense operations in bulk shipping, which is why it recurs as a source domain for TOEIC Link marine and logistics reading passages. The workflow is fixed: the surveyor reads six draft marks, samples the water density, tallies the deductible weights, computes the displacement from the ship's tables, and states the cargo figure. That sequence generates a stable cluster of roughly forty terms. A candidate who owns the cluster reads the passage at native speed; a candidate who does not stalls on the load-bearing nouns and loses the passage's argument.

This guide isolates the cluster, groups it by survey stage, and maps each term to its native collocation and register tier, because TOEIC Link scores writing as well as reading. Pair it with the writing vocabulary precision and collocation discipline guide for the skill of choosing the exact term, and with the writing tone and register control guide for matching a term to the formality of the survey report around it.

Why this cluster rewards study

A draft-survey passage assumes its vocabulary the way a tank-calibration or bunker-survey passage does. If a reader decodes mean of means, deductibles, and apparent trim one word at a time, the attention the module intends for the inferential questions is consumed by decoding. Learning the cluster converts those stalls to zero and frees the reader to answer what the passage actually asks — why the two surveyors disagree on the figure, what the correction depends on, and where the largest source of error lies.

Stage 1 — Reading the drafts

The survey opens with the surveyor physically reading the marks on the hull.

  • Draft marks — the painted scale on the stem, midships, and stern showing how deep the hull sits. Collocation: the drafts are read at six points; a mark is read to the nearest centimetre.
  • Forward, midship, and aft draft — the three positions read on both sides, port and starboard. Collocation: the forward draft is observed; readings are taken on both sides.
  • Freeboard — the height of the deck above the waterline, sometimes read when marks are obscured. Collocation: freeboard is measured from the deck edge.
  • Apparent trim — the difference between forward and aft draft before correction, showing the vessel's fore-and-aft attitude. Collocation: the vessel is trimmed by the stern.
  • List — the athwartship heel that makes port and starboard readings differ. Collocation: readings are averaged to remove the list.

Stage 2 — Correcting the drafts

This stage carries the cluster's most discriminating vocabulary — the corrections that turn six raw readings into one true mean draft.

  • Mean of means — the weighted average of the six drafts that yields the true mean draft at the ship's center of flotation. Collocation: the drafts are reduced to the mean of means.
  • Draft correction — the arithmetic adjustment for the offset between the marks and the perpendiculars. Collocation: the reading is corrected for the position of the marks.
  • Center of flotation — the point about which the vessel trims, whose distance from midships drives the trim correction. Collocation: the correction references the center of flotation.
  • Trim correction — the two adjustments (first and second trim) applied for the vessel's fore-and-aft attitude. Collocation: the second trim correction is applied for large trims.
  • Hog and sag — the longitudinal bending of the hull that distorts the midship reading. Collocation: the hull is hogged or sagged; a deflection correction is made.

Stage 3 — Density and displacement

The report converts the corrected draft into a weight using the ship's own tables and the water it floats in.

  • Hydrometer — the instrument that reads the density of the dock water from a drawn sample. Collocation: density is read on the hydrometer; a sample is drawn alongside.
  • Dock water density — the actual density of the harbor water, rarely the standard 1.025. Collocation: displacement is corrected for dock water density.
  • Hydrostatic tables or displacement scale — the ship's book relating draft to displacement in salt water. Collocation: displacement is taken from the tables.
  • Displacement — the total weight of water the ship displaces, cargo and everything else included. Collocation: displacement is read against the mean draft.
  • Density correction — the factor that scales the salt-water displacement to the actual dock water. Collocation: the figure is corrected to the observed density.

Stage 4 — Deductibles and the net cargo

The largest source of dispute is everything aboard that is not cargo, and TOEIC Link questions target these terms for procedural inference.

  • Deductibles or constant — the sum of all non-cargo weights subtracted from displacement. Collocation: the deductibles are tallied and subtracted.
  • Ballast water — the water in the ballast tanks, sounded and the single largest deductible. Collocation: ballast is sounded in every tank; the figure is deducted.
  • Sounding — the measured depth of liquid in a tank, converted to weight via the tank tables. Collocation: tanks are sounded; soundings are converted to tonnes.
  • Bunkers, fresh water, and stores — the fuel, potable water, and consumables aboard, each sounded or estimated. Collocation: bunkers are measured and deducted.
  • Light ship — the vessel's own empty weight, a fixed deductible from the ship's particulars. Collocation: the light ship weight is deducted.

Stage 5 — Reconciling and reporting

The survey closes with the cargo figure and its reconciliation.

  • Cargo quantity — the survey's deliverable: final displacement minus deductibles, minus the initial figure. Collocation: the cargo quantity is determined by difference.
  • Initial and final survey — the two full surveys, before and after cargo operations, whose difference is the load or discharge. Collocation: the figure is the difference between initial and final surveys.
  • Bill of lading figure — the declared quantity the survey is checked against. Collocation: the surveyed figure is reconciled with the bill of lading.
  • Tolerance — the accepted margin (commonly ±0.5%) within which draft and shore figures agree. Collocation: the difference falls within tolerance.
  • Letter of protest — the formal note issued when figures diverge beyond tolerance. Collocation: a letter of protest is issued over the discrepancy.

Register tiers within the cluster

The cluster splits cleanly across the register tiers TOEIC Link rewards a candidate for controlling. Mean of means, center of flotation, deductibles, and displacement are high-technical nouns that carry the report's argument and should be produced exactly. Dock water density, apparent trim, and light ship are mid-tier operational terms. Read, sounded, and deducted are the plain verbs any reader must map instantly. A candidate who can move a finding up the register — reporting "the final displacement, corrected to a dock water density of 1.019 and reduced by the sounded deductibles, yields a cargo quantity within tolerance of the bill of lading" rather than "we measured how deep the ship sat and it matched" — demonstrates exactly the control the writing module scores.

How to drill the cluster

Read one real draft-survey report or bulk-cargo survey summary and mark every term above as you meet it; the density will surprise you. Then write a three-sentence determination that (1) states the corrected mean draft and the density used, (2) names the principal deductibles and the displacement, and (3) issues the cargo quantity and its agreement with the bill of lading. Producing that paragraph from memory is the fastest way to convert a passive reading acquaintance with the cluster into the active control TOEIC Link measures. For the volumetric side of quantity surveying, the tank calibration and volumetric strapping survey cluster shares much of this report's arithmetic vocabulary.

For the writing-side skills this cluster feeds, continue with the writing vocabulary precision and collocation discipline guide and the writing tone and register control guide.