Your examiner asks: "What are the seasonal load line zones, and what happens to your permitted freeboard as you move between them?"

A. The Load Line Convention divides the world's oceans into zones and seasonal areas (e.g. Summer, Winter, Winter North Atlantic, Tropical) each with their own permitted load line/minimum freeboard — generally, Tropical zones permit the least freeboard (greatest permitted draught) reflecting calmer expected conditions, while Winter North Atlantic requires the greatest freeboard (least permitted draught) reflecting the most severe expected sea conditions; a vessel transiting between zones must not be loaded beyond the load line appropriate to the zone/season it is actually in or about to enter.

B. Seasonal zones affect only the vessel's routeing, not its permitted draught or freeboard at all.

C. Winter North Atlantic permits the least freeboard of any zone, since winter conditions are assumed to be calmer in that specific area.

D. Once loaded in a Tropical zone, a vessel may continue at that draught indefinitely regardless of which zone it later transits.

A. The load line marks (the Plimsoll disc and the associated lines for summer/winter/tropical/fresh water etc.) are positioned amidships on each side of the ship, at the load line deck line reference, generally at about the mid-draught area of the ship's side — exact positioning and whether alternative load lines are assigned (e.g. for combination passenger/vehicle carriage) depends on the ship type and its conditions of assignment.

B. Load lines are always painted on the bow only, never amidships, regardless of ship type.

C. Only oil tankers are required to carry load line marks; all other ship types are exempt from load line marking.

D. Load line marks are applied solely to the stern of the vessel, next to the draught marks, with no amidships marking required.

A. It is a record (often within the stability information or as a standalone log) of the vessel's draughts and corresponding actual freeboards at departure/arrival or other relevant points, used to verify the vessel was not loaded beyond its permitted load line for the applicable zone/season and density at the time, and to cross-check against the deadweight scale/hydrostatic data — examiners commonly walk through specific columns of this record and ask the candidate to explain what each represents.

B. The Record of Draughts and Freeboards is a class society survey-only document with no entries made by ship's staff.

C. This record applies only to passenger ships and has no equivalent requirement for cargo vessels.

D. The record contains only fuel consumption figures, unrelated to draught or freeboard.