🔍 Key Concepts

• Reserve buoyancy and what it means for a damaged ship • Relationship between stability, trim/attitude, and flooding • What keeps a damaged vessel safely afloat long enough for damage control and evacuation

💭 Think About

• If a vessel’s hull is breached and compartments are flooding, which of these choices is most directly tied to the ship’s basic ability to stay afloat at all? • Which factor, if lost, would very quickly make the others (stability, pumping, level attitude) meaningless? • Think about a ship sitting lower and lower in the water: which of these items is being reduced as the waterline rises toward the main deck openings?

✅ Before You Answer

• Be clear on the definition of reserve buoyancy (volume of the ship above the waterline that can be flooded before sinking). • Ask yourself whether stability/attitude matter if the vessel no longer has enough buoyant volume to float at all. • Consider that bilge pumping capacity only helps as long as there is still enough intact, unflooded volume to support the vessel.