Gross Tonnage

[Tranona]

The sloppy use of terminology and measurements is endemic in the media. Much better idea of size is to compare the Marco Polo with a London bus (new type!) or a football pitch. In just the same way the amount of flood water on the Somerset levels is measured by the number of Olympic sized pools it would fill.

 

[VicS]

A formula which I learned in infancy ... but I have never understood why it's not (L-B) x B x B / 188

Several ways in which the expression could be rearranged more logically

 

[VicS]

Hmmm...So the Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea disagrees with wikipedia and seems to be happy to use "Gross Tonnes" for "Gross Tonnage" implying that the "tonne" is the unit of measurement for "Gross Tonnage". From what it says there, it wouldn't be incorrect to talk about a "22000-tonne vessel" when referring to a ship with a gross tonnage of 22000 (so my initial supposition would be wrong)..

having now gone into this in great depth ( I ought to get out more I think) I come to the conclusion that you are right and that the use of the word tonnes is iincorrect.