Ballast tanks are designed for ballast. Ballast is the extra weight, most often in the form of port water, which helps a ship to:
- Improve ship stability. When the ship is empty or when the cargo is unfavorably loaded (e.g. timber, containers), the ballast tank helps maintain favorable stability.
- Balance the ship’s longitudinal and transverse tilts. The weight on the ship is not evenly distributed, so we need extra weights on the opposite sides to keep the ship in balance. We do this by filling the tanks with ballast on the opposite side. This is especially important in the port