Timber

should be taken to mean any sawn wood, or lumber, cants, logs, poles, pulpwood and all other types of timber in loose or packaged forms. The term does not include wood pulp or similar cargo.

Timber Cargoes Example
Timber is loaded in various forms with differing weights and methods being employed. Package timber is generally handled with rope slings while the heavier logs, depending on size, are slung with wire snotters or
chain slings.

Battens –
sawn timber more than 10 cm thick and approximately 15–18cm wide. Usually shipped in standardized bundles and may be pre-slung for ease of handling.

Boards –
sawn timber boards of less than 5 cm thick but may be of any width.

Cord –
a volume of 128 ft3 _ 3.624 steres.

Deals –
sawn timber of not less than 5 cm thick and up to about 25 cm in width. A ‘Standard Deal’ is a single piece of timber measuring 1.83m _ 0.08m _ 0.28 m.

Fathom –
(as a timber measure) equals 216 ft3 (6 ft _ 6 ft _ 6 ft).

Logs –
large and heavy pieces of timber, hewn or sawn. May also be referred to as ‘baulks’. Stowed above and below decks and individual logs may need to be considered as ‘heavy lifts’ for the safe working load (SWL) of the cargo-handling gear being used.

Pit props –
short straight lengths of timber stripped of bark and used for shoring up the ceilings of mines. They are shipped in a variety of sizes.

Stack –
a measure of timber equal to half a ‘fathom’ and equates to 108 ft3.
Note: The metric unit of timber measure is known as a ‘Stere’ and is 1m3 or 35.314 ft3 or 0.2759 cords.